We are urging MPs to now improve the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as it progresses to its Committee Stage following today’s House of Commons debate.
While we do not take a position on the ethical and philosophical basis of assisted dying, we are calling for sufficient safeguards to be put in the bill to protect seriously ill children and young people. These include:
- Professional competencies: Ensuring that professionals involved would have the skills, training and experience needed to discuss assisted dying with young people and their families, both before and after they turn 18.
- Competence, capacity and parental responsibility: Addressing complex questions on whether young people will be able to request an assisted death as part of advance care planning for their transition to adulthood.
- Conscientious objection: Protecting the rights of professionals and services to opt out of offering assisted dying without legal or funding repercussions.
- Approved substances: Recognising the biological differences between young people and older adults in the way they metabolise medicines and accounting for this accordingly.
- Access to high quality palliative care: Safeguarding access to high quality palliative care to prevent situations where young people might consider an assisted death due to their needs not being met.
Chief executive of Together for Short Lives, Nick Carroll said: “While this bill is designed to offer assisted dying to terminally ill adults, it would inevitably have an impact on seriously ill children, young people and their families. Assisted dying could become part of already challenging conversations about end of life care choices that young people and their families have with professionals as they approach adulthood. It is vital that MPs consider this as the bill undergoes deeper scrutiny.”
There are many questions about the impact of this bill on children and young people which are still to be answered. There is a postcode lottery in access to high quality palliative care for children and young people. No young adult should feel compelled to consider an assisted death because they cannot access the palliative care they need, when and where they need it.
Nick Carroll
Together for Short Lives is urging MPs to carefully consider these implications to ensure that the bill reflects the added complexities of working with children and young people and addresses critical issues raised.
