As mentioned last episode of the podcast, Chelsea Roff gave evidence at the Terminally Ill Adults (Assisted Dying) Bill committee this week. As Chelsea told them, the Committee MPs clearly do not want women with anorexia to be given assisted dying in the proposed bill.
Assisted Death and Women Ep 2: A Story of Control
In Westminster this week MPs heard from a series of invited witnesses that - in their opinion - there was no risk of women with anorexia being given assisted death. But we know different. At least 60 people have been given assisted death where an eating disorder is their primary qualifying condition. That includes in 3 states in the US where assisted d…
But Chelsea Roff and Dr Catherine Cook Cottone’s research shows that they DO, already, in 3 US states which follow the US/Australia model for assisted dying that the Westminster draft bill is based on.
After Chelsea’s evidence, a series of experts were then invited to opine and said that it was not possible for those with anorexia to be able to access assisted death (somewhat baffling, as it is already happening in the US, and more widely in other places where the law has been expanded beyond ‘terminal illness’ requirements).
That’s why it’s worth appreciating Dr Naomi Richard’s honesty in admitting that people with anorexia have already died from assisted deaths in the US, but that it is only “1 or 2” and in her view that this is a distraction from the delivery of a “new mode of dying”.
Our tolerance for this number is very different: it’s zero, forever. But what will MPs on the bill committee decide? Is zero possible if doctors in the UK already say women are ‘terminal’ in their anorexia? If not zero, how many?
So, did MPs really hear what they needed to prevent women with anorexia being given assisted death in England and Wales. Did any minds change? Lets see what the coming weeks bring.
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