A leading Catholic bioethics institute has condemned a government impact assessment of a proposed assisted suicide bill for calculating potential cost savings from patients ending their lives, calling the approach “truly sinister.”
Newsroom (June 02, 2025, 08:57, Gaudium Press) The Anscombe Bioethics Centre, an Oxford-based institute serving the Catholic Church in the UK and Ireland, slammed the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for underestimating the number of deaths under Kim Leadbeater MP’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill while highlighting financial benefits to the NHS and state pensions.
Flawed Projections and Ethical Concerns
The government’s impact assessment estimates that 4,500 people annually in England and Wales could die by assisted suicide if the bill passes. While setting up a Voluntary Assisted Dying Commission would cost millions, officials projected £90 million in savings over a decade, including £59.6 million less in NHS spending and £18.3 million in reduced pension payouts.
But Anscombe argues these figures are misleading, as they rely heavily on U.S. data rather than comparisons with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where assisted suicide laws have led to far higher death rates.
“The UK’s healthcare system and societal norms align more closely with these Commonwealth nations,” the centre stated. “If similar trends apply here, the death toll could be much higher than projected.”
“Measuring Death as a Cost-Saving Measure”
The most alarming flaw, Anscombe said, is the government’s focus on financial savings without weighing the moral cost.
“The assessment values life at zero,” the report said. “Savings aren’t from better care or cheaper treatments—they come from people dying sooner.”
By framing assisted suicide as a fiscal benefit, the government risks reinforcing the dangerous idea that the ill and elderly are a ‘burden,’ potentially pressuring vulnerable individuals to end their lives, the centre warned.
“A Threat to the Vulnerable”
Professor David Albert Jones, Anscombe’s director, said: “At a time when disabled people face cuts and the NHS is struggling, it’s grotesque to present killing patients as a cost-saving measure.”
He warned that the initial setup costs—millions spent on assisted suicide services—could create a perverse incentive to push more people toward early deaths to recoup expenses. This has been seen in Canada.
Growing Opposition in Parliament
The bill, now at Report Stage in the Commons, faces increasing resistance. At least six MPs who initially supported it have withdrawn their backing over safeguard concerns, and others are reconsidering. Only 20 more opposing votes could defeat it.
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have called the bill “deeply flawed” and urged voters to lobby MPs ahead of the June 13 debate and final vote (June 20).
A Moral or Economic Choice?
Anscombe’s analysis concludes: “This bill doesn’t empower choice—it incentivizes death. The government’s own documents reveal the horrifying logic at play: human lives reduced to line items in a budget.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Catholic Herald
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