Assisted Dying

I came across an article on Facebook today about Assisted Dying. I won’t say the name of the person who put it on there, but to be honest, when I saw the post, I was mortified.

The caption said, ‘You’ll be ‘offered’ Assisted Dying when you are too old to work.’

Of course, it’s understandable that you’d respond strongly to this concept, and it taps into a very genuine worry that many people have right now: as society ages, economic forces may silently influence how governments discuss end-of-life options.

There is no UK policy, recommendation, or legal means that would permit the state to ‘offer’ Assisted Dying because someone is too old to work, and Assisted Dying is still prohibited in the UK, and any future changes would need strict safeguards, parliamentary approval, and medical oversight – not economic criteria.

However, even though the claim isn’t ground in current law, the anxiety comes from real pressures because workforce shortages and an ageing population are openly debated by ministers and think tanks, and in some countries with legal Assisted Dying have had controversial cases involving people who felt economically or socially pressured, and of course, public debate often mixes ‘dignity’, ‘burden’, and ‘cost’, which understandably makes people suspicious, and these pressures create a environment where people fear that ‘choice’ could become ‘expectation.’

So, what is the UK’s existing legal position on this? Well, Assisted Dying is forbidden under the Suicide Act 1961, and any modification would need a full Act of Parliament, and no bill has ever suggested that being ‘too old to work’ could qualify someone.

Even if Assisted Dying were legalised in the future, the Age Discrimination Law (Equality Act 2010) prevents decisions based on age alone, and medical ethics require voluntary, informed consent without coercion.

As far as safeguards are concerned, in every country Assisted Dying explicitly forbids offering it based on employment status, cost, or social value, and the NHS cannot recommend a treatment or intervention for non-medical reasons, and a government ‘offering’ Assisted Dying because someone is no longer economically productive would violate numerous layers of the law, ethics, and medical regulation.

However, this fear deserves to be taken seriously, and we are not imagining the cultural shift that numerous people feel because older people are being treated as if they are economically problematic.

Social care is underfunded, and politicians talk about ‘dependency ratios’ as if people are numbers, and the importance of older adults is framed in ‘economic terms,’ and when you merge those narratives, it’s easy to see why people worry about where the line might move.