Two doctors would need to assess terminally ill adults who wish to end their lives under proposed assisted dying legislation for England and Wales.
The bill, which will be subject to a ‘free vote’ among MPs on 29 November, states that doctors are not under ‘any duty’ to raise assisted dying with patients or to ‘participate in the provision of assistance’ if they do not wish to.
Published this week, the bill sets out the eligibility criteria for adults wishing to end their lives as well as requirements for doctors involved in the process.
The proposed legislation stipulates the involvement of both a ‘coordinating doctor’ and an ‘independent doctor’ who can attest to the person’s eligibility.
After confirmation from both doctors, as well as a ‘declaration’ from the person themselves, the High Court must then make a decision, and must ‘hear from’ at least one of the doctors.
Only adults whose death from terminal illness ‘can reasonably be expected’ within six months would be eligible to receive assistance to end their life.
But the definition for terminal illness does not include ‘mental disorders’ or ‘disabilities’, under the proposed legislation.
The process must also take at least three weeks, with ‘reflection’ periods built in for the person between clinical assessments and after the High Court’s decision.
Doctors must ensure that persons wishing to end their own life:
- Are aged 18 or over;
- Are terminally ill;
- Have ‘capacity’ to make the decision;
- Have been resident in England and Wales and registered at a GP practice for at least 12 months beforehand;
- Have a ‘clear, settled and informed wish to end their own life’;
- Have made the decision ‘voluntarily’ and have ‘not been coerced or pressured by any other person into making it’.
The draft legislation makes clear that a doctor providing assistance ‘in accordance’ with the requirements is not guilty of any criminal offence, nor do their actions ‘give rise to civil liability’.
However, if a doctor ‘induces another person’ by ‘dishonesty, coercion or pressure’ to make declarations or to self-administer a substance, this would be an offence punishable by a prison term of up to 14 years.
The bill also stipulates that employers ‘must not subject an employee to any detriment for exercising their right’ not to participate in assisted dying processes.
The new bill, put forward as a private members bill by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, follows a Health and Social Care Select Committee inquiry looking into the current law and at international examples of assisted dying becoming legal.
Following the introduction of this bill to Parliament last month, the UK’s most senior medical leaders advised that it is ‘entirely reasonable’ for doctors to take part in the public debate around assisted dying.
However, the UK’s chief medical officers also warned doctors against ‘implying’ that they speak for the entire medical profession rather then ‘expressing their personal views’.
Over 3,400 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals have signed a letter to the Prime Minister to warn that assisted dying cannot be introduced safely while the NHS is ‘broken’, according to The Telegraph.
Organised by campaign group Our Duty of Care, the letter states: ‘The NHS is broken, with health and social care in disarray. Palliative care is woefully underfunded and many lack access to specialist provision. The thought of assisted suicide being introduced and managed safely at such a time is remarkably out of touch with the gravity of the current mental health crisis and pressures on staff.’
Health secretary Wes Streeting said in October that he was worried about palliative and end-of-life care ‘not being good enough to give people a real choice’ on Good Morning Britain, saying he would vote against changing the law on assisted dying.
Last autumn, a survey of General Medical Council-registered doctors revealed that nearly half of UK doctors think that a physician-assisted dying law ‘would negatively impact the medical profession’.
A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication Pulse.
