The idea that hospices would be defunded if they refused to carry out assisted suicide is, frankly, revolting. It will cause more suffering.
Successive governments have already chosen to underfund palliative care, leaving it mostly at the door of the charitable sector.
As Malthouse has clarified, the bill promises—among other things—to defund hospices if they decline to provide assisted deaths:
“Should they still be able to deny what is a legal service, if they are in receipt of public funds?”