MPs propose major changes to assisted dying law

It follows three days of evidence from various experts including England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty, as well as other medical and legal professionals.

The committee of MPs set to scrutinise formally the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will start line-by-line examination on Tuesday.

Spen Valley MP Ms Leadbeater has claimed the bill, which would allow terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to end their lives, has the “most robust” protections in the world.

It requires sign off from two independent doctors and a hearing in front of a High Court judge.

Ms Leadbeater has now proposed a number of amendments around the role of doctors and the training for those who would provide the service.

Under the changes, she proposed a requirement that doctors, in their initial discussion with a patient, could not raise the provision of assisted dying on its own.

They would have to set out any treatment and palliative, hospice or other care available, including symptom management and psychological support.

Ms Leadbeater said the Bill gives “an opportunity to develop the very best end of life care, conversations and choice with ‘gold standard’ training”.

As part of her amendments, medics would be required to produce a detailed report into every person who applied for assisted dying, including an assessment of both mental capacity and coercion, and those willing to provide assisted dying would need training in assessing capacity and identifying coercion.

Ms Leadbeater has also proposed that experts in capacity and coercion, as well as the human rights watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) would have to be consulted before training and other regulations were put in place.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon, who is on the Bill committee, has also proposed an amendment which would extend the time limit to 12 months for people with serious neurodegenerative conditions.

Campaigners say this will fix a catch-22 with the Bill where some people, with conditions like motorneurone disease, would be denied an assisted death with six months left to live as they are too ill to self-administer the medication.

Mr Gordon told The Yorkshire Post: “We have this opportunity to give people that autonomy over their final personal moments.

“Whilst the Bill is fantastic, this amendment would bring it in line with other countries around the world, giving the same access and opportunity to people with neurodegenerative diseases.

“It’s not about broadening it, it’s about ensuring equal access to people depending on what their terminal illness is.”

Mary Kelly, a 70-year-old from North Yorkshire with Parkinson’s, urged MPs to back Mr Gordon’s amendment.

When she was diagnosed two doctors gave a 13-year time difference in when they thought the disease would start to affect her seriously.

She said: “I don’t know what the future holds, but Parkinson’s is a degenerative condition and I know that if I became very ill and less able to live a full, dignified life, then I would want to have the option of a facilitated death. It is fundamentally unfair that I can’t.”

Ms Kelly said that if the Bill was changed “I would feel huge relief”. She explained: “Whichever of the consultants is right, however long it takes, I would have control over my life and know that, if it became unbearable, either through pain or indignity or inability to communicate and take part in life, I could decide for myself if I wanted it to end. It would mean that, in the meantime, I could live my life to the fullest I’m able.”

No date has been given yet for the Bill to return to the Commons for further debate by all MPs at report stage but it is likely to be towards the end of April.