London:

According to a poll done in England and Wales, support for the practice of assisted suicide has decreased. The study, commissioned and sponsored by the advocacy organization Dignity in Dying, sheds light on this significant trend.

The group chose YouGov to conduct two surveys on assisted suicide in July of this year, one in Scotland and one in England and Wales.

According to a 2019 Dignity in Dying survey, 84 per cent of people in England and Wales approve of assisted suicide. However, the most recent survey shows a fall in support, with the current level being at 75 per cent.

Silvan Luley, a representative of Dignitas, a Swiss non-profit that promotes physician-assisted suicide, told the Health and Social Care Committee that 540 British residents had died at the clinic over the last two decades.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Essex University has slammed Dignity in Dying's polling on assisted suicide, calling it "skewed and ambiguous."

Similarly, when surveys employ the word 'assisted suicide,' there is a considerable fall in the number of people who favor the adoption of assisted suicide, with reductions as high as 19% observed in these polls, according to worldwide polling.

Respondents' support seemed to be impacted by their exposure to arguments opposing the legalization of assisted suicide.

Separately, a recent research performed by Savant ComRes revealed that counterarguments had a substantial influence on the opposition to assisted suicide in England, Scotland, and Wales. The data indicated a significant drop in resistance to this contentious practice, from 73 per cent to 43 per cent.