'Capacity' concerns over assisted dying bill

Politicians who oppose a bill on assisted dying because palliative care provision is inadequate are wrong, Labour peer and former lord chancellor Lord Falconer has told the Gazette. ‘The law is broken and needs to be dealt with,’ Falconer said. ‘It shouldn’t be linked to the provision of perfect palliative care.’

Health secretary Wes Streeting and lord chancellor Shabana Mahmood are among MPs who have said they will vote against a private members bill, citing concerns that the absence of adequate palliative care could drive terminally ill people to choose an assisted death if the bill becomes law.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, introduced by backbencher Kim Leadbeater MP, has been promised parliamentary time by the government, raising the possibility that it will become law.

The bill has cross party support. But lawyers have raised concerns about some aspects. As currently drafted, a person who chooses an assisted death must show they have capacity and a settled intention.

‘A person’s capacity can change, from day to day even,’ Giles Wilson partner Melinda Giles told the Gazette. ‘It can be affected by medication, shock, fatigue, stress or emotional anxiety.’

‘I worry about the capacity issue for the courts,’ David Lock KC added. A court will rely on the assessment of two doctors to confirm the eligibility of a person for an assisted death. Will an overstretched High Court be able to properly scrutinise those assessments?

Leadbeater’s bill has its first debate and vote on 29 November.

Read the Gazette's feature on the bill in today's edition