Member

It may be helpful to note that, for the purposes of veterinary euthanasia, the drugs are subject to formal evaluation and authorisation by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, under the relevant regulations. It seems difficult to justify a position in which substances used to end the life of animals are required to meet the usual regulatory standards, while substances intended to end human life would be introduced through a novel and less clearly defined regulatory process. In the House of Commons, amendments proposing MHRA involvement were resisted on the grounds that such requirements might make the Bill more difficult to implement. Expediency and legislative convenience, however, cannot reasonably justify bypassing the usual regulatory framework.