Safeguards needed if bill on assisted dying is to become law

Safeguards needed if bill on assisted dying is to become law

If the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill* is to become law, it needs robust safeguards and must be able to work in practice, warns the Law Society of England and Wales.

The bill would allow terminally ill adults who have six months to live to request assistance to end their life. It provides several steps for checking that the person has a clear, settled and informed wish to end their own life and has made that decision voluntarily, without coercion or pressure.

The Law Society has made recommendations as the bill begins detailed scrutiny in the House of Commons committee stage.

These include:

• the need for High Court approval and its impact on court resources must be addressed. If Parliament deems this step necessary, then the bill needs to be clear on how the High Court will deal with the applications and increased workload. Lawyers may have a role in providing advice and representation, in which case legal aid should be made available on a non-means-tested basis
• currently, medical practitioners do not need to provide reasons for their conclusions in statements after conducting assessments. Parliament should consider requiring more information to be recorded, to help the High Court assess whether the scheme’s requirements have been met
• regulations, codes of practice and guidance on core issues must be publicly consulted and published before any changes take effect. They should be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain fit for purpose**

Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: “We are focused on supporting an informed and unbiased discussion on the bill.

There must be strong independent monitoring and review mechanisms in place with robust, accessible and independent safeguards to ensure people are using the scheme of their own accord.

“Parliament should closely examine how a person’s capacity to decide to end their own life is defined and assessed.

“The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill requires further consultation to ensure direct and workable safeguards are in place, if it becomes law. We urge Parliament to consider our recommendations carefully before the bill proceeds to the next stage.”

Notes to editor

*Learn more about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

**Assessing capacity, recognising coercion or pressure and ensuring assessments and other functions are not affected by bias, discrimination or assumptions based on a person’s characteristics are essential.

“Pressure” should be clearly defined for the safeguards to be effective, and the term “next of kin” should be revisited.

The provisions of when a person can authorise a proxy, as well as what qualifies someone to act as a proxy, also need to be clarified.

The Law Society’s parliamentary briefing of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill can be sent upon request.