Terminally ill risk being coerced to end lives for insurance payout, campaigners warn

Concern grows patients that will die prematurely if Parliament approves assisted dying plans

Terminally ill people risk being pressured to end their lives by relatives seeking an insurance payout, anti-assisted dying campaigners have warned.
It is understood that the insurance industry will treat an assisted death in a similar manner to a death from any other illness, meaning that policies would typically be expected to pay out.
Activists and doctors have cautioned that families might coerce elderly relatives to opt for an assisted death in order to secure swift life insurance payments.
They fear that individuals may be particularly driven to opt for assisted death if they have no illness cover and a policy that is nearing expiration.
Prof Bill Noble said he is concerned “some patients would die before their time” if Parliament approves controversial plans to legalise assisted dying.
The former president of the Association for Palliative Medicine said his caution was borne out of experience, having witnessed manipulative behaviour from the relatives of some of his end-of-life patients during his career.
It is understood that the insurance industry expects to not treat an assisted death any differently.
This would mean that if someone dies because they have legally been helped to ingest a lethal substance, their insurance will likely pay out.
Three major insurance firms confirmed plans to treat assisted dying claims “sympathetically”, with one having already “supported” claims involving assisted dying, which is legal in other countries.
The industry is monitoring the situation closely since Kim Leadbeater announced she would put forward a Bill to change the law for terminally ill people at the beginning of the month.
The Labour MP for Spen Valley formally introduced her private members’ Bill on Oct 16.
A free vote on the legislation is scheduled for Nov 29, the first time MPs have debated the issue since 2015.
Research out this month from King’s College London shows two-thirds of British people support a law change, with the insurance industry’s stance seemingly reflecting this broad public acceptance.
Zurich Insurance Group said that it has no formal policy for assisted dying, but would consider any life insurance claim “sympathetically” on a case-by-case basis.
A spokesman added: “In practice we would expect the large proportion of those considering assisted dying would be likely to have arrived at the terminal illness benefit stage and have claimed under that benefit.”
A second major insurer said that it would take broadly the same position as Zurich.
Royal London Group said it had already “received and supported claims that have featured assisted dying” and would likely pay out such claims in the future.
But Prof Noble expressed concern that the potential for an insurance payout could act as an incentive in a minority of assisted dying cases.
“My concern stems from my experience of a few families requesting, manipulating or misrepresenting my patients’ wish to die or be killed by medical intervention.
“It is not common, but it does occur and if the consequences were not severe, I have no doubt that some patients would die before their time. Doctors have neither the capacity nor the capability of policing this issue.”
He added: “If the policy does not include terminal illness insurance and it is shortly coming to an end, it might well be a motive both for coercion and for the patient to choose assisted dying, particularly if the family understood the true nature of predictions of survival.”
Prof Noble pointed out that some terminally ill patients can live for much longer than doctors predict.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of campaign group Care Not Killing, said the issue of inheritance highlights the “inherent dangers of legalising assisted suicide”.
“If the insurance companies will pay out in such circumstances there will be nothing to stop those with greedy motives from seeking a financial windfall by putting pressure on those who are vulnerable to opt for assisted suicide or euthanasia,” he added.
Polling by Action on Elder Abuse has previously found that almost 10 per cent of those aged 65 and over in the UK report experiencing some form of elder abuse.
Royal London Group said its experienced assessors treat all claims “sensitively and fairly”.
Its policies do not pay out deaths from self-inflicted injury in the first 12 months of a plan, but otherwise have no exclusions or defined position on how specific causes of death are treated.
A spokesman said: “We would review all the individual circumstances of any claim where a death may have been assisted so that we can reach an informed decision. This would include the circumstances surrounding the death, the beneficiaries of the policy and the involvement or conclusions of any police investigations.
“Taking into account those considerations, and while we cannot provide guarantees regarding hypothetical scenarios, if the individual who has passed away following an assisted death would likely have died naturally during the term of their plan, Royal London would likely pay such claims.”
The group has no immediate plans to change this policy.