CV NEWS FEED // As the United Kingdom considers legalizing assisted suicide, a therapist is warning that domestic abuse perpetrators can weaponize state-sanctioned euthanasia against their disabled or chronically ill spouses.
In an article for The Tablet, Nikki Keane, who has worked with domestic abuse victims for the past 25 years, wrote that the UK Parliament’s proposed Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill could threaten the safety of victims of domestic abuse.
Keane interviewed a disabled woman, identified under the alias Helena in the article, who was abused by her ex-husband. Helena told Keane she was opposed to the legislation, but noted that her reason for opposition is different from the reason others oppose it.
“It is when your spouse wants to kill you, and the state gives them a totally legal way to do it,” Helena said.
Helena’s ex-husband had also been her caregiver, and they had lived in a country where euthanasia was legal for terminal and chronic illness.
“My husband used to threaten to euthanise me if he got fed up with being my carer,” she said.
Keane noted that data supports Helena’s concerns –– in the United Kingdom, 50% of women who are deaf or disabled experience domestic abuse during their life.
Keane also explained that having a disability can exacerbate domestic abuse, allowing the perpetrator to exercise “coercive control,” an umbrella term for various domestic abuse tactics. The UK recognizes coercive control as a crime.
“If a victim has a disability or chronic illness, it is very common for that to be used by the perpetrator as part of the abuse, restricting access to medication, or aids such as wheelchairs or hearing aids,” Keane explained. “If the perpetrator also has the role of carer, escape –– or even a chance to safely disclose abuse –– can be almost impossible. Disability or illness can leave domestic abuse victims completely trapped with their abuser.”
Keane stated that coercive control is hard to recognize, even for the victim, and that if it escalates to violence, the first act of violence can be fatal.
Moreover, domestic abuse escalates the risk for suicide, she wrote: every day, approximately three women take their own lives because of domestic abuse, and 30% of female abuse survivors contemplate suicide on a daily basis.
“We need to be aware that there is a very real possibility that someone nearing the end of their life may also be a victim of domestic abuse,” Keane wrote, “and that this is likely to affect decisions about assisted suicide.”
While the proposed amendments to the assisted suicide bill would require training for medical professionals to spot coercion, Keane stated that it would be much harder to teach doctors to recognize when a terminally ill person is seeking assisted suicide to escape abuse.
“Given the high levels of suicidality among victims, and the control that abusers have over them, it is easy to see how assisted suicide legislation could be twisted into a method for perpetrators to kill their spouse with impunity,” Keane warned.
She quoted Jane Monkton-Smith, a specialist in fatal coercive control, who wrote on social media: “The [criminal justice system] is just acknowledging the scale of possible criminal culpability in domestic abuse and suicide, whilst at the same time, a bunch of MPs seek to make it non-criminal.”
Keane also noted that in countries where assisted suicide is legal, there is very little research on the link between assisted suicide and domestic abuse.
She concluded by quoting Helena, who told her, “I just don’t want anyone living with the fear and threats that I had. Whatever we do, we need to make sure that we don’t open the door to another way for men to harm women and get away with it.”
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