NHS will become national health and assisted suicide service says MP

Assisted dying free on the NHS if proposed legislation becomes law is a fundamental change to the principles on which the health service was founded, a leading opponent has said.

Conservative MP Danny Kruger said the NHS would, if the Bill being considered at Westminster passes into law, become the “national health and assisted suicide service” as he accused those behind it of taking a “red pen to Bevan’s legacy”.

He was referencing the NHS’s chief architect Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, who as minister for health was given the task of introducing the service under the 1946 National Health Service Act.

MPs scrutinising the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Tuesday were considering two new clauses imposing a duty on the Health Secretary in England and giving power to ministers in Wales – where health is devolved – to ensure the provision of voluntary assisted dying services.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the Bill, told the committee: “I’m clear the process must be available as part of the range of services available to patients under the NHS and free at the point of need.”

She said it is “crucial that the option of a voluntary assisted death remains part of a holistic approach to end-of-life care” and added that private provision should also be available.

Ms Leadbeater told MPs: “NHS trusts and ICBs (integrated care boards) may, as they already do, use private providers in some circumstances.

“This provides flexibility, which is important, but chair, what matters is that the safeguards and protections in this Bill will apply no matter where the service is supplied.”

She added that the same requirements will apply to all medical practitioners that they “cannot benefit financially or in any material way from the death of a person and can only receive reasonable remuneration for providing a service”.

Mr Kruger suggested a “linguistic sleight of hand” was being used in the legislation with the phrase “VAD (voluntary assisted dying) services”.

He said it was there “to avoid having to spell out that section one, subsection one of the NHS Act will now include references to assistance to end the lives of people in England and Wales”.

Mr Kruger suggested this was because “it’s a hard thing to do, to take a red pen to Bevan’s legacy, to fundamentally change the NHS from one ‘designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales, dedicated to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness’, and to include, to add, into that founding clause of the NHS, the words ‘and end the lives of terminally ill people’.”

He added: “So I’ll be blunter than the drafters have been. This clause changes the NHS from the National Health Service to the National Health and assisted suicide service.”

MPs are considering and voting on various amendments to the Bill, including the establishment of an assisted dying commissioner and expert panels to approve assisted dying applications, to replace the High Court judge element which was scrapped earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Isle of Man’s parliament became the first part of the British Isles to pass assisted dying legislation.

Its Assisted Dying Bill will be sent for royal assent, having had its final reading by members of the legislative council on Tuesday.

The Bill, for adults resident on the island for five years who have a terminal illness with a life expectancy of no more than 12 months, could formally become law later this year with an assisted dying service potentially in place by 2027.

Published: 25/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub