KEY STATISTICS

UK CITIZENS AND SWITZERLAND

MEDICAL, DISABILITY, AND PUBLIC OPINION

  • 87% of the public favours changing the law on assisted dying for both the terminally ill and incurably ill, in at least some circumstances.
  • 88% of people who identify as disabled favour changing the law on assisted dying in at least some circumstances.
  • 71% of people who identify as religious support changing the law on assisted dying.
  • 92% of people who identify as non-religious support changing the law.
  • 50% of doctors personally support changing the law as per the British Medical Association’s survey on assisted dying,
  • 58% of doctors believe that, if the law were to change, patients with physical conditions causing intolerable suffering which cannot be relieved should be able to access an assisted death.

WORLDWIDE LEGAL ASSISTED DYING

  • More than 400 million people around the world have a legal right to die.
  • Assisted dying accounts for 4% of deaths in Canada.
  • In Canada, the vast majority of people have an assisted death because they’re less able to engage in enjoyable life activities (82.1%), are in severe pain (56.4%), or worried about their loss of dignity (53.3%).
  • In Oregon, on average a third of people approved for assisted deaths decide not to take their life-ending medication. In most cases, that’s because having the security of knowing they can end their suffering if it ever became too much to bear is enough. 

PALLIATIVE CARE AND ASSISTED DYING

VULNERABLE PEOPLE

  • 45% of UK doctors believe that some healthcare professionals already assist their patients to end their life; it is estimated that around 1,000 people are helped to die every year illegally.
  • It is estimated that at least 30% of overseas assisted deaths are unknown to the police.