Speaking directly to GB News members, Dr Renée Hoenderkamp has issued a stark warning against the Assisted Dying Bill, calling it not just misguided, but dangerous.
“I want to tell you today why I am totally opposed to the assisted dying bill,” she began. “Let’s call it what it is. It’s actually an assisted suicide bill.”
Dr Hoenderkamp, a GP, made it clear that she believes Britain already has assisted dying - and that it doesn’t involve ending lives early. “We already have assisted dying. It’s called palliative care,” she said. “The problem that we have in the UK is not enough money goes into palliative care.”
As she explained, many people simply aren’t aware of the options already available to ensure pain-free end-of-life care. “A lot of people don’t know that there is something available in palliative care… when your pain becomes so great that it can’t be managed just with pain relief – called continuous deep sedation – where you're actually given enough medication that you go into a deep sleep and you're not feeling pain. But neither are we killing you.”
She emphasised that “the body will slowly die, obviously, because that’s what we all do, but we can actually make it pain free completely until the end.”
'Old people being coerced to die!' - GP issues chilling warning on assisted dying
GB News
Her message was simple: “We need to put our efforts there. It is not the state's job to kill people.”
Dr Hoenderkamp criticised the way the current bill is being pushed through Parliament. “This private member's bill has been rushed through. It's been bullied at committee stage, with the committee being loaded about 15 to 8 for and against assisted dying. And that’s reflected in all of the amendments that have been voted down in those numbers.”
As a GP, she expressed deep ethical concerns: “What I worry about as a GP is it’s not my role to suggest to people that they might want to die.”
And she’s concerned about the potential consequences: “I worry that it's going to slip to suggesting that lots of people with anorexia, disabilities, finding it hard in life to function financially. That is not what we're here for. We're here to help people.”
She warned of the dangers of coercion, particularly among the elderly. “I really worry about old people being coerced to die. And believe me, I’ve seen it and you can’t always spot it all.”
Dr Renée Hoenderkamp says the proposed assisted dying bill risks exploiting the vulnerable and opens the door to silent coercion behind closed doors.
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Dr Hoenderkamp shared troubling real-world examples: “People often feel that they should die because they’re a burden. Younger people in the family feel that Granny’s money should not be wasted in her care home and fees… I have seen people move into Granny’s home while she’s in a care home, and frustrate all efforts to see her come home.”
“There is so much that can go wrong with this,” she said. “And the biggest problem is the slippery slope.”
She took direct aim at arguments that the slippery slope is a myth. “Kim Leadbeater will tell you that in Oregon it hasn’t happened. It has. And more and more people in Oregon are saying that the reason they want to die is for financial hardship and mental distress. Those are not reasons to die. We can help those people.”
Her concluding plea was firm and heartfelt: “Let’s not kill people. Let’s not do it this way. Let’s help them and give them a good death.”
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