Every year, thousands of stories of abuse pour into Compassion in Care, a charity that supports whistleblowers in the care sector. Volunteers manning the charity’s helpline hear of old people dismissed as ‘end of life’, deprived of food and water, abandoned in corners with neglected bedsores, needlessly sedated to make them less time-consuming.

And now, says the charity’s founder and director Eileen Chubb, a former care whistleblower herself, they are bracing for ‘a massive increase in abusive cases’. That’s if the assisted suicide bill, which begins its journey through the Lords this week, becomes law. ‘We can foresee whistleblowers contacting us,’ Chubb tells me, ‘saying people died who didn’t want to die but were pushed into it, and the system failed them.’

That system is already far too ready to put people on a pathway towards death. ‘I’d be rich if I had a pound for every time someone says, “Don’t bother the doctor, she’s old and she’s going to die anyway.”’ Helpline volunteers regularly hear anguished stories from carers and families about old people denied basic care and attention. Four-fifths of callers mention the withdrawal of fluids. 

Now, Chubb says, those same callers are disturbed by the prospect of a law which would institutionalise a state death service. ‘What we’re hearing is people constantly saying, “We’re really worried. It’s hard enough as it is. If you speak up and try to save a life, the attitude is – there’s something wrong with you, you should just turn a blind eye like the rest of us”.’

Many people in care will fall within the broad remit of the bill: those with a terminal diagnosis who might die in the next six months. The bill allows someone meeting that definition to receive lethal drugs, even if their sole reason for seeking an assisted death is depression, financial concerns or feeling like a burden.

Abuse victims, Chubb points out, are often too ashamed to tell others what is happening; and often, they want to die. ‘We’re going to fail them twice,’ she says. ‘Once because we let them be abused and once because we’re going to let them die because of their despair at being abused.’

Even without becoming law, the bill is already having an effect. Chubb has heard from carers who have tried to report abusive practices and ‘one of the abusive staff has turned round and said to them, “Well, this is all going to be legal soon”. People’s perception is that the right to life has shifted.’

Even if there were no........

© The Spectator