Assisted dying: Proposal to extend eligibility for neurodegenerative illness

People with neurodegenerative illnesses such as motor neurone disease (MND) should be able to request assisted dying with 12 months left to live, MPs have proposed.

This would extend the eligibility for this group from the current six-month life expectancy under the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon, who is on the committee set to undertake formal scrutiny of the Bill next week, said his proposal “will ensure more people with neurodegenerative conditions will be able to access an assisted death if that is their choice”.

The amendment Is supported by a number of other MPs including Labour’s Rachel Hopkins, who said a new law “should be a compassionate one” with a different approach to different terminal illnesses where necessary.

The committee took evidence from some 50 witnesses last week, including medical and legal experts as well as bereaved families.

Dignitas

Among those who sat before the committee was retired High Court judge Sir Nicholas Mostyn, who told MPs the Bill “is not ever going to provide an assisted death for me”.

Sir Nicholas, who has the neurodegenerative condition Parkinson’s, told how he fears he will have to go to Dignitas rather than endure a “poor death” in the UK with that disease.

As it stands, the Bill could see terminally ill adults in England and Wales with under six months to live legally allowed to end their lives, subject to approval by two doctors and a High Court judge.

The proposed amendment would see the definition of terminal illness changed to include neurodegenerative illnesses, diseases or medical conditions where a person’s death as a result of such an illness can reasonably be expected within 12 months.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said: “As currently drafted, the Bill will bring no relief for the majority of those who travel to Switzerland each year and it desperately needs amendment.”

He argued that the “evidence is clear that the time limit currently in the Bill is not workable for those with neurodegenerative conditions and it needs to change”.

Scrutiny

Opposition groups have argued a new law could see vulnerable people feel pressured into an assisted death if they feel they have become a burden.

The committee is expected to start line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill on February 11.

No date has been given yet for the Bill to return to the Commons for further debate by all MPs at report stage but it is likely to be towards the end of April.

It will face further scrutiny and votes in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until later this year at the earliest.

After that, it would likely be at least another two years before an assisted dying service was in place.