Hospice crisis fuels euthanasia fear as MPs deliberate

As the Parliamentary debate for assisted dying approaches, fears are growing that the hospice funding crisis could make patients more likely to opt to die.

Parliament is gearing up to debate proposals to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life later this year. At the same time, hospices, who receive only a third of their funding through the NHS, have been calling for more government support as they face job cuts, bed cuts and even closure.

While some are able to continue through generous donations from their community – in June church members in East Hampshire church raised nearly £20,000 for Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice – not all can. In October, Zoe’s Place, a hospice for babies in Liverpool, shut its doors after 29 years due to ‘insufficient funds’ for a new lease on their building or for relocation (Liverpool Echo).