As it stands, the proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a three-member panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.
The philosopher
Robert Rowland Smith: ‘Assisted dying is a symptom of the age’
Whatever the rights and wrongs of assisted dying, we can understand it in terms of being a symptom of the age.
So one way to think about assisted dying is that it wrestles back a modicum of control. Not just over the pain we might suffer in the last months of our lives thanks to poor health or other circumstances, but in terms of the larger existential question regarding our helplessness in the face of the absolute fact of death.
And perhaps it’s these two levels of compassion – the first more immediate, the second more existential – which gives us a chance to mark our humanity.
Many concerns remain unresolved – currently, the bill does not require a holistic assessment of unmet need.
Read Next
square POLITICSRead More
The Royal College of Psychiatrists also has concerns relating to risk factors for suicide, the Mental Capacity Act, and workforce shortages.
We remain focused on sharing our expert clinical insight to ensure the bill has strong safeguards for those who are vulnerable, especially people with mental illness, intellectual disability and autistic people, to make sure the Bill is in line with the role and core duties of psychiatrists and other doctors, should it become law.
The lawyer
Ann Stanyer: ‘This bill has many shortcomings’
Whatever your views on the principle of assisted dying there is no doubt that this private members’ bill has many shortcomings. MPs have tried, over the extended parliamentary report stage, to address the issues with it, but unfortunately they were not successful.
square KITTY DONALDSON Assisted dying bill: no cheers in the Commons and no winners
Read More
MP Diane Abbott spoke eloquently about coercion and how this will be identified, and her colleague Naz Shah highlighted the fact that a proposed amendment designed to protect those suffering from anorexia had not even been voted on.
It remains to be seen whether the House of Lords will give some much-needed scrutiny to its operation and seek to tidy up a far from perfect bill. There is no doubt however that assisted dying will come into force in some form, and we must take what legal steps we can to protect the most vulnerable at the end of their lives.
Ann Stanyer is a consultant at London law firm Wedlake Bell; she is an expert in the field of elder law and financial abuse of older people
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Assisted dying is now set to become law: have MPs made the right decision? )
Also on site :