Why legalising assisted dying is safer than the status quo

The current ban on assisted dying does not prevent assisted deaths. It forces decisions behind closed doors, leaving dying people, their families and healthcare professionals without protection or oversight.

Our report, Out of the Shadows, reveals the hidden harms of the current law and explains why a safeguarded assisted dying law would be safer.

Only around 1 in 6 cases of assisted dying reach the desk of the DPP

Around 600 Britons have had an assisted death in Switzerland since 2015. Under the current law, investigations usually take place only after someone has died, if they happen at all. Analysis of Home Office data found that between April 2015 and March 2026:

• 559 cases of assisting suicide were recorded by police in England and Wales.
• 62% were dropped because of difficulties gathering evidence.
• Only 99 cases – around one in six – were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

These figures show that the current law does not provide meaningful scrutiny. If coercion, pressure or a lack of mental capacity were involved, the evidence might never reach prosecutors.

Doctors in the UK are potentially illegally helping people have an assisted death

Some healthcare professionals are already helping patients obtain the medical information they need, despite operating in a legal and regulatory grey area.

Professional guidance is unclear and inconsistent. Some doctors provide support, while others refuse because they fear legal or professional consequences.

A regulated law would replace this uncertainty with clear responsibilities, upfront assessments and proper oversight.

Dying people are taking their own lives while receiving palliative care

Excellent palliative care is essential, but even the best care cannot relieve every person’s suffering or remove every dying person’s desire for control.

NHS data shows that terminally ill people are taking their own lives while receiving specialist palliative care. Yet around a third of the NHS Trusts and Health Boards that responded to our Freedom of Information (FOI) request did not record, or could not access, this information.

This data – or lack thereof – exposes the extent to which we lack oversight of how dying people are already trying to exercise control over how their lives end.

The status quo creates inequality

Travelling abroad for an assisted death costs an average of around £15,000. It also requires access to medical documentation, the ability to navigate a complicated process and enough physical strength to travel.
This means the limited choices available under the current law are largely reserved for those with money and resources.

It is primarily the poor who are affected by this. People who have money are able to take themselves to a different country. Those who don’t have loads of money suffer as a result of assisted dying not being legal.

Keith

Evidence from places where assisted dying is legal does not show that people choose it because they lack palliative care. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people who have an assisted death are already receiving palliative care.

Regulation brings protection

Where assisted dying is legal, every assisted death is documented and reviewed. Information is published, patterns can be identified and concerns can be investigated.

A safeguarded assisted dying law would bring choices that are already being made out of the shadows. It would introduce upfront protections, clear professional responsibilities and a level of monitoring that is entirely absent today.

The choice is not between assisted dying and no assisted dying. It is between the unsafe, unequal and unregulated reality of the status quo and a safeguarded law with transparency and oversight at its heart.

Out of the Shadows – Why legalising assisted dying is safer than the status quo