Donald Trump’s administration has waded into the UK’s assisted dying debate by condemning “state-subsidised suicide”. The intervention by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor came despite assisted dying being legal in 10 US states and one federal district, with more moving to change their laws.
The bureau — which is part of Marco Rubio’s State Department, responsible for foreign policy and diplomacy — wrote on X: “As the UK Parliament considers support for state-subsidized suicide, euphemistically called a bill for ‘Terminally Ill Adults’, the United States reaffirms the sanctity of life. The western world should stand for life, vitality and hope over surrender and death.”
The UK Government takes a neutral position on the Bill and Downing Street was said to have been blindsided by the intervention.
Mr Trump has not issued any statements publicly giving a view on assisted dying, however the Republican Party is generally opposed to it.
Terminally ill campaigner Nathaniel Dye, who has been one of the leading voices calling for change in the UK, said it was “wrong to suggest that terminally ill people like me are ‘surrendering’ or have given up on life”.
The music teacher said: “To the contrary, I intend to squeeze every drop I can from the time I have left.”
Nathaniel, 39, completed the London Marathon in April despite being in the middle of treatment for incurable bowel cancer, with more than 50 tumours in his lungs.
He added: “For me, the difference between ‘surrender’ and assisted dying is that if and when my life is effectively over, when it is certain that life will bring me nothing than pain and suffering and nothing beyond the confines of a hospital bed, then I respectfully ask if the process of my certain death can be as kind, compassionate and brief as possible.”
Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill had its first reading in the House of Lords on Monday.
It draws on best practice from jurisdictions which have already legalised assisted dying, including some US states.
Oregon was the first state to change its law in 1997, permitting adults who are mentally competent, terminally ill and expected to die within six months to seek medical assistance to die. It is now considered a blueprint for a safe and limited law which has not widened in scope.
The New York senate this month passed a bill which would legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people with less than six months to live. A similar bill was backed by the Illinois House of Representatives last month.