16-year-olds who have anorexia could be granted right to die, experts warn trends now
Teenagers with anorexia could apply for state-backed ‘suicide’ under ‘extremely dubious’ laws proposed in Scotland, experts warned last night.
Newly published Holyrood legislation would allow NHS patients to request prescriptions for a life-ending cocktail of drugs that induce a coma, shut down the lungs and eventually stop the heart.
Supporters of Scotland’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill insist that the option to choose death over treatment would only be available for the ‘terminally’ ill – and would give patients more dignity in death.
But ethics experts blasted the broad definition of ‘terminal’ in the laws, which they fear could see those who stand a chance of recovery dying on the NHS.
‘Extremely clear’, MSP Liam McArthur
They also say the Bill does not protect against overstretched doctors suggesting that patients consider dying rather than use up precious NHS resources.
David Jones, professor of bioethics at St Mary’s University in London and director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, said: ‘It is extremely, extremely dubious.
We’re talking about “assisted dying” as a euphemism, and it’s always assisted suicide.
‘Suicide is something that we should try to seek to prevent and provide alternatives to, whether it’s for an old person or a young person, whether they have progressive disease or disability.’
‘Terminal in the Scottish Bill is defined as someone having a progressive incurable disease from which you could die. It could cover anorexia.
There have been cases of people with anorexia having assisted dying in Oregon in the US.’
In an impassioned plea to MSPs to reconsider, Professor Jones has also warned the Bill would:
l Let people as young as 16 die before their lives had properly begun;
l Not require someone to be close to death to be eligible for ‘assisted dying’;
l Not make a psychiatric assessment mandatory ahead of the life-ending procedure.
The legislation published last month, put forward by the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ Liam McArthur, has caused huge controversy.
Senior figures at Holyrood have all signalled they are set to vote against the proposal.
Professor Jones last night went further, claiming it was fundamentally unethical.
He said: ‘It is called the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, so that proclaims itself as being restricted to people who are terminally ill, but it defines people that are terminally ill only as people who have a progressive incurable disease, which is at an advanced stage. It doesn’t mean that you’re dying.’
In Oregon – cited as a template for Scotland, but where assisted dying rates have rocketed 3,000 per cent since its laws were introduced in 1997 – the state requires a doctor to ensure someone is six months off a natural death before sanctioning an assisted death.
Professor Jones says Scottish lawmakers have ‘deliberately avoided putting in a time restriction or prognosis’. He said: ‘It could cover anorexia.
Because it’s Scotland, you become an adult at 16. So, unlike Oregon, where it is 18, you are
