Arlene Foster: Grief and the assisted dying debate

He was a wonderful, quiet, rural gentleman and lived the last three years of his earthly life in a private residential home which provided him with care and attention when he could no longer live on his own. He and his wife very sadly were unable to have children of their own, but both took much joy from their wider family. His was a peaceful death, as he slipped from this world to the next, and not unexpected due to his long life.

The grief and sadness of death is something we all must deal with in our lives, as scripture tells us in the midst of life we are in death. Sometimes death can come very suddenly as it did with my late father, and whilst it is a terrible shock and pain for those that remain, for those that pass it is a blessing as they do not have to go through a lengthy period of illness. For those that do go through a period of hospitalisation or illness before dying, it can allow a period to say goodbye to loved ones and prepare for the next world.

In all cases however, no matter how the loved one dies it is a loss and a pain like no other – trying to cope without the person who was loved and treasured as a human being can be overwhelming especially for those closest to the deceased.

For Christians, the hope that our faith provides is a great gift and can provide strength to get through even the most difficult of days when waves of grief wash over you.

And it is as a Christian that I must deal with the new proposed law that is before the House of Lords in the coming weeks.

Lord Falconer, a labour peer, has brought forward a bill to allow the assisted dying of those who are terminally ill. He has many supporters not least celebrities such as Dame Esther Rantzen who believes that we should be allowed to determine when our lives should end.

Dame Esther has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and is campaigning to allow herself and others to end their lives at a time of their choosing rather when it would naturally end.

I can of course understand why those with a terminal illness may want to have this choice.

Many of us have watched as friends and relatives have struggled in pain with terminal illnesses and off course, we have huge sympathy for their terrible afflictions and often feel helpless as they leave this life.

It is one of the reasons why I am an ardent supporter of our Hospice movement and since I joined the House of Lords have become involved in trying to get more funding for their essential services.

As I wrote in this paper last year, we fund health services for the beginning of life in a full way so why don’t we give similar attention to end-of-life care?

Surely the NHS should be truly from the cradle to the grave.

Campaigners for assisted dying argue that people should be allowed dignity in death, and I absolutely agree – the way to do that is to ensure full funding of palliative care and not to end a life artificially.

I am particularly worried about those who are vulnerable in old age or who feel they are a burden on their relatives. We are told the legislation will have safeguards to protect these people, but I am far from convinced especially when I look at the operation of assisted dying in Canada.

The legislation has been in operation in Canada since 2016. It has the catchy, inane name of “medical assistance in dying” or MAID for short.

Since the introduction of the law to allow MAID until 2022 some 45,000 Canadians have died through ‘assistance’, and the percentage of people using MAID has increased year-on-year.

In the House of Lords, I have heard testimony from palliative care doctors who are gravely concerned about how the system operates in Canada and how older people are in particular offered this 'way out' - as it is presented - and feel pressurised in to taking this decision.

The other reason put forward is that the cost of keeping someone alive would be saved if they took their life early. This is a most distasteful and distressing argument but made all the same – think of how much money we would have if people would take their lives earlier and did not have to be looked after? Has society fallen so far that we see people’s lives in this way?

Frankly if more time and energy were invested in planning for elderly, palliative and hospice care it would save the health service much more money than bringing in assisted dying legislation. It is what is called investing to save.

The lack of planning by our health service for our aging population is staggering. For decades we have known that people are living longer and therefore the care system should reflect that in its planning. The plain truth is that our health system is not only not fit for purpose generally - hence the Bengoa report and the need for reform, but our services have completely failed to plan for the entirely foreseeable spike in elderly need.

This needs to be addressed now before unmet need in elderly care causes yet another crisis in our health system.

I believe all life is valuable, and I worry that the debate in Parliament will focus on individual difficult cases rather than the making of law for the future – it is never a good idea to make legislation based on individual cases but rather to look at the practical outworkings of the law, especially for the marginalised and the vulnerable.

We need to heed the experience of other jurisdictions and realise that despite safeguards some have died well before their time.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.”