Assisted dying bill amendment aims to close potential ‘anorexia loophole’
Share:
Exclusive: Concerns raised that wording of law could result in people with eating disorders using it to end their lives. MPs will look to close a potential anorexia loophole in the assisted dying bill that psychiatrists fear could result in people with severe eating disorders using it to end their lives.
The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney, who sits on the committee of MPs that will scrutinise the proposed law, is tabling an amendment to tighten the language around mental capacity. MPs will this week begin examining Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill line by line ahead of the next parliamentary vote in April. They are expected to take evidence from external experts in the last week of January and begin to consider any proposed amendments.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists expressed some concern about the bill and its reference to mental capacity. It said many people with mental disorders such as anxiety or depression would be deemed to have capacity, though under the terms of the bill they would also need to have a terminal illness with less than six months to live.
But the college said the wording of the bill “could also be interpreted to include those whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental disorder.”. It said: “While anorexia nervosa, for example, does not itself meet the criteria for terminal illness … its effects (malnutrition) in severe cases could be deemed by some as a terminal physical illness, even though eating disorders are treatable conditions and recovery is possible even after decades of illness.”.
