Member

One possible interpretation for the creation of a parallel regulatory framework is that the substances to be used under the Bill are not medicines in the conventional sense, nor part of a standard healthcare intervention, and therefore are not subject to the usual evidence requirements and regulatory expectations. If that is the case, it raises an important question about whether such substances properly belong within a healthcare system at all. Doctors within the NHS prescribe treatments that are supported by evidence assessed through established regulatory pathways and embedded within recognised guidelines, such as those produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE. If the substances proposed for assisted dying are to sit outside such frameworks, the rationale and indeed the ethics of introducing this practice into the NHS and requiring the involvement of doctors and other clinicians become rather worrying.