Catholic Medical Quartery Vol 76 (1) February 2026
Editorial
Assisted Suicide
Dr Pravin Thevathasan
Kit Malthouse, the assisted suicide
campaigner, has said that the alleged safeguards will make assisted
suicide in this country "the safest in the world." In contrast, Dr Annabel
Price, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Liaison faculty has
said that "a key part of our response to the Bill has been to highlight
that people with terminal illness are at risk of increased depression."
When depression is treated, the desire to end life often subsides.
It would appear that Nick Hoile of Dignity in Dying has given up on safeguards: "People who are going to kill themselves are going to kill themselves regardless of what we do."
Hoile is brutally honest. And has given us a very good reason to campaign against assisted suicide.
Reference
- UK Conservative Party Conference featured a pro-assisted suicide panel discussion. Lifesite News, November 8, 2025. https://www.lifesite-news.com/opinion/uk-conservative-party-conference-featured-a-pro-assisted-suicide-panel-discussion
Stop Press
The demise of the Assisted Dying Bill- a cautionary note
Dr Adrian Treloar
The demise of this bill is welcome news, and consequent upon the impossibility of adequately safeguarding vulnerable people.To make killing legal enables killing.And that is truly dangerous. There were so many concerns that the bill ran out of time in the House of Lords.
While we may celebrate the Bill's demise, we MUST work harder to win the argument that killing is wrong and the legalising killing will disproportionately disadvantage the weak and vulnerable.There is much to do.