by
Robert W.D. Gorter, MD, PhD.
with thanks to Frontnieuws
December 7th, 2024
Christoph / Pixabay
The British government has announced plans to give cash bonuses to relatives of elderly people who choose to have euthanasia.
“Terminally ill retirees could end their lives early to spare their loved ones a six-figure tax bill under assisted dying legislation, experts have warned,” according to a worrying report in the Telegraph. Under current rules, pensions “pass on free of income tax if the person dies before the age of 75,” writes Sean Adl-Tabatabai
Rob White wrote: “However, if assisted dying were to become legal, it could leave someone approaching that age with an agonizing choice between prolonging their life or, saving their family hundreds of thousands of pounds. Pensions specialist Andrew Tully said the potential change in the law was an additional consideration in what was already a ‘cliff edge’ situation.”
That is, someone who is 65 and sick might decide – or be pressured to decide – that opting for lethal injection would be better for those who would then inherit a lot more money, given that if someone dies after age 75, “their beneficiaries have to pay income tax on what they receive, which can be as high as 45 percent.”
The Telegraph has helpfully broken down the math:
For example, if someone died at 75 with £500,000 in their pension pot, the person who inherited it would pay £225,000 in income tax if they took it as a lump sum. However, if the deceased had died before their 75th birthday, that tax bill would be reduced to zero. Andrew Tully of Nucleus Financial said it was “yet another consideration” for people at the end of their lives.
He said: “With pensions, there is a cut-off age where dying before 75 is treated more favorably for tax purposes than dying at or after 75. This is a cliff edge situation and a few days in either direction can have a significant financial impact. In some cases, it can be hundreds of thousands of pounds. When someone is terminally ill, the consideration of tax and what money is passed on is already an added stress, particularly when there are complex family dynamics involved. They are at the end of their lives but at the same time they are worried about caring for those they leave behind.”
“We have yet to fully understand how the law around assisted dying will work in practice, but it is clearly vital that we create a system where wider financial considerations are not allowed to influence an individual’s decision,” Standard Life’s Mike Ambery told the Telegraph. “In the future, assisted dying will need to be a factor in the legal consideration of a variety of financial circumstances, including lump sum death benefits and estate planning.”
This once again exposes the ludicrous nature of the “choice” and “autonomy” offered by assisted suicide schemes. The truth is that people will now be forced to make many, many choices that they did not face before; that they will face pressures, both internal and external, that they did not feel before; that the option of assisted suicide will loom large over every decision they make. Only by keeping assisted suicide and euthanasia illegal can this be prevented. MP Kim Leadbetter – who has already noted that someone feeling like a burden is a perfectly “legitimate reason” for wanting assisted suicide – is forcing people into this series of “choices.”