UK pro-life leaders warn of ‘disaster’ in outsourcing assisted dying to private sector

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London, England, Mar 11, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Leading pro-life campaigners in England and Wales have expressed alarm following reports that Westminster’s proposed “assisted dying” process might be outsourced to private companies.

Following a report in The Times that the U.K. government is considering contracting out assisted death to the private sector, should it become legal, a spokesperson for Right to Life UK said the plans were “a disaster waiting to happen.”

Members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favor of an assisted dying bill in November 2024 at its second reading, and the bill is now under the scrutiny of a parliamentary committee, which is examining how “assisted dying” might work in England and Wales.

The report in The Times stated that resorting to an arrangement with the private sector would be a means of easing pressure on the taxpayer-funded National Health Service (NHS), which has notoriously long waiting lists.

However, Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK, said the move would be a mistake. “Introducing assisted suicide to the U.K. would be a disaster waiting to happen, made potentially even worse if outsourced to the private sector,” she said. 

“It could easily create a perverse incentive to push assisted suicide on patients where, in a specialized Dignitas-like service, an assisted suicide business seeks to assist in ending the lives of their clients as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to maximize profits,” she added.

Robinson continued: “Under such a system, the existing checks and safeguards will likely be increasingly viewed as an inconvenience and a barrier to business. The welfare of vulnerable patients will be especially at risk due to the profit motive.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference for England and Wales said: “We have consistently opposed the bill to legalize assisted suicide in principle. We encourage all Catholics in England and Wales to make their voices heard and contact their MPs to ask them to vote against it at third reading.”

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is expected to reach its next stage, known as the report stage, later in the spring and then MPs will be given a chance to vote again on the bill at third reading, having assessed the committee’s recommendations on the bill.

If it passes, the bill will then have to progress through the House of Lords before it can receive royal assent and become law.

The government health secretary, Wes Streeting, has made no secret of his concern that legalizing “assisted dying” would place too much pressure on the NHS.

“There would be resource implications for doing it. And those choices would come at the expense of other choices,” he told Times Radio in November 2024.