Campaigners are urging members of parliament (MPs) to vote down the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill over fears that it contains loopholes that could put people with anorexia at risk of dying by assisted death. More than 250 people who have suffered from eating disorders penned a letter to MPs, warning that if the bill had been law during their struggles, they might have used it to end their lives.
Anorexia is a psychiatric disorder that can lead to severe physical deterioration and is known as the most lethal psychiatric disorder, with suicide being the second – leading cause of death in anorexia. Campaigner Chelsea Roff, founder of the eating – disorder organization Eat Breathe Thrive, warned that the bill contains “dangerous loopholes that have enabled suicidal women with anorexia to die by assisted death” in other countries.
Labour MP Richard Quigley, whose child has been in and out of hospital with anorexia for the last four years, echoed these concerns. He said that while he is not opposed to assisted dying in principle, mental health care in the UK is not yet good enough to ensure the legislation is applied safely.
A number of amendments were proposed to exclude people with eating disorders from the bill at the committee stage, but all were rejected. Labour MP Naz Shah is tabling two amendments at the bill’s third reading, one to exclude people who have voluntarily stopped eating or drinking and another to exclude those taking “any action intended to bring about a state of terminal illness”.
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