Member

Ms Roff has drawn my attention to Commons Amendment 14, tabled by Naz Shah MP in the other place, which was accepted without a vote. It provides that someone cannot be considered terminally ill only because they have voluntarily chosen to stop eating and drinking. Clause 2(2) is necessary to prevent individuals from, in effect, manufacturing a terminal illness through self-starvation or dehydration in order to qualify for an assisted death, something that has already occurred in the state of Oregon. It does not, however, on its own provide adequate protection for people with eating disorders. As Ms Shah herself has said, a loophole remains.