Legal expert warns: New death bill could create profit-driven industry
Long-time solicitor raises red flags about proposed assisted-dying legislation. Based on decades of will-dispute experience‚ he points out how money and family issues might corrupt the system
As a well-known law practitioner Gary Rycroft shares his deep-rooted worries about the new assisted-dying bill: his three decades of legal work shows how family matters get super-messy when money is involved
The real-world problems with wills give us a clear warning — two main issues keep coming up in courts: peoples mental ability to make choices and others pushing them to do things. These problems are getting bigger nowadays (because house prices make family money bigger and step-families make things more complex)
Legal checks in the new bill dont look strong enough: two doctors must check if someone is making their own choice‚ and a high-court judge needs to say ok. But heres the thing — right now getting a doctors note for a will takes forever and costs about £150-400; some medical offices dont even do it
The court system is already super-slow with its day-to-day work: imagine what happens when life-or-death choices need quick answers. Private companies might jump in to speed things up — they could make a business out of helping people die faster (which is pretty scary when you think about it)
Hereʼs what we already can do: anyone can say no to life-saving treatment while still getting food water and pain help. You can also fill out a special form that tells doctors what you dont want them to do if you cant speak for yourself. These options work fine without opening doors for money-hungry businesses to profit from peoples end-of-life choices
Turkey farmers will always vote for Christmas. I fear this Bill may mean itʼs Christmas all year round to those who wish to profit from assisting us to our death
