2 in 3 Britons think it should be legal for a doctor to assist a patient aged 18 or older in ending their life by prescribing life-ending medication

• 2 in 3 Britons (65%) think it should be legal for a doctor to assist a patient aged 18 or older in ending their life by prescribing life-ending medication that the patient could take themselves, assuming certain conditions are met; 17% think it should not be legal
• People are more likely to support this policy in situations where the patient is physically suffering (58%) as compared to mentally or emotionally suffering (36%)
• 4 in 10 (38%) think it’s acceptable for someone in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland to break the law to assist someone they know who wanted to die, compared to 29% who think it’s unacceptable to do so

New polling by Ipsos shows that a majority of the public think it should be legal for a doctor to assist a patient aged 18 or older in ending their life by prescribing life-ending medication that the patient could take themselves (65%), providing certain conditions are met (including the patient being of sound mind and being terminally ill with 6 months or less to live). By contrast, 17% think it should not be legal, with the remainder unsure (18%). Support was similarly high when asked if it should be legal for doctors to administer life ending medication themselves – 61% thought this should be legal, with 21% thinking the opposite and 18% unsure.

Britons were also asked about conditions in which it might be appropriate for a doctor to assist a patient who is not terminally ill, but is suffering in a way the patient finds unbearable, in ending their life by prescribing life-ending medication that the patient could take themselves. More than half of Britons (58%) would support it being legal to for doctors to do this in circumstances in which the patient was physically suffering, with 1 in 5 (22%) opposed. Support falls to just over 1 in 3 (36%) when the patient is mentally or emotionally suffering, slightly lower than the 40% who would oppose the policy in this circumstance.

At present, assisted dying is not legal in the UK, with assisting suicide further criminalised in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Even so, a larger share of the public think it’s acceptable for someone in one of these nations to break the law to break the law to assist someone they know who wants to die (38%) than think it’s unacceptable to do so (29%). 17% think its neither acceptable nor unacceptable, with the remaining 16% unsure.

Britons less likely to support making doctor assisted suicide legal for patients under the age of 18

Under half of Britons (43%) think it should be legal for a doctor to assist a terminally ill patient in ending their life by prescribing life-ending medication if the patient is aged 16-17, falling to 36% if the patient is 11-15. By contrast, just over a third (35%) of the public think it should not be legal  when the patient is aged 16-17, rising to 39% when the patient is aged 11-15. Support is still lower when the patient is not terminally ill but is physically suffering in a manner they find unbearable, with the share who think it should be legal declining from 43% to 30% when the patient is aged 16-17, and from 36% to 25% when the patient is aged 11-15. Just under half think it should not be legal in this circumstance for either age group (45% when the patient is aged 16-17 and 47% when the patient is aged 11-15).

If assisted dying were to be made legal in the UK for patients aged under 18, a majority of Britons think it would be important for patients to have parental consent if they want assistance with dying (58% say this would be very or fairly important when the patient is aged 16-17 and 60% when the patient is aged 11-15). Only a minority do not think it would be important for patients under 18 to get parental consent (11% when the patient is aged 16-17 and 6% when the patient is aged 11-15), while just under 1 in 5 do not think assisted dying should be legal for these age groups in any circumstance (16% when the patient is aged 16-17 and 18% when the patient is aged 11-15).

Technical note

• Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,128 adults aged 16-75 in Great Britain. Interviews took place on the online Omnibus between 14th-16th July 2023. Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of errors.
• Respondents were shown the following information about assisted dying prior to answering any questions:
  
  The next few questions are about assisted dying in the UK.
  Assisted dying refers to a patient aged 18 or over being provided with life-ending medication if at least two doctors think that all the following conditions were met:
  • The patient would need to be of sound mind,
  • The patient would be terminally ill and it is believed that they have 6 months or less to live,
  • The patient would have made a voluntary, clear and settled decision to end their life (and made and signed a declaration to that effect in the presence of a witness), with time to consider all other options,
  • The patient has been resident in the country for at least a year,
  • The High Court confirms it is satisfied that these conditions have been met,
  • If the conditions are met, a health professional may help to prepare and assist with the medication, but the decision to self-administer the medicine and the final act of doing so must be taken by the patient themselves.
    
    Assisted dying is not currently legal in the UK.