This article is republished from National Review with the permission of the author.

The future that some of us predicted about assisted suicide deployed as a resource saver has come to the U.K. Even as the House of Commons has passed a legalization bill — currently being debated in the House of Lords — the country’s hospice system is collapsing. From the BBC story:

Some 380 hospice beds out of around 2,000 lie empty in England because of financial pressures, say bosses.

Hospice UK has told BBC News this is up from 300 a year ago and illustrates the severe challenges facing the sector.

Beds are left empty to save money — since staffing and caring is costly — and so are unavailable to patients.

Do you know what isn’t costly? Assisted suicide. Poison is cheap.

And how can advocates spout on about “choice,” when the humane and moral alternative to end-of-life care becomes unavailable? And how can anyone think that assisted suicide/euthanasia won’t come to be seen as a splendid way to save money by erasing expensive patients well beyond the terminally ill? Add in organ-harvesting as a boon to society and the threat to  — and objectification of — the medically vulnerable becomes undeniable. Indeed, such stories and studies are already appearing.

When doing research for Forced Exit (1997), my first book about assisted suicide, I came across data showing that the hospice sector in the Netherlands was stunted as compared with that of other countries. One doctor was even quoted as saying, “Why do I need hospice? I have euthanasia.”

Once one overcomes queasiness involving killing and sheds the idea that life itself has intrinsic value, such crass utilitarian logic becomes impeccable.

Those with eyes to see, let them see.