Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Baroness Parminter
Main Page: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Parminter's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 22 hours ago)
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Baroness Parminter (LD)
I support the intent of the Bill to increase personal autonomy for those with life-limiting illnesses, but good legislation must provide adequate protection for the vulnerable, including those with eating disorders. The malnutrition that accompanies anorexia means, as the noble Baroness, Lady Debbonaire, said, that if treatment is delayed or refused, the physical condition of someone with a mental illness can deteriorate to a life-threatening degree.
Starvation of the brain causes distorted thinking and severely impairs how a person weighs up information. I remember vividly when our daughter was in the grips of severe anorexia. She could debate proportional representation with me, but she was adamant that she would rather die than put on weight. Yet, in countries where assisted dying is legal, lethal drugs are being given to people with this condition, which has a well-established link to depression and suicidality, despite the fact that, with the right treatment and support, recovery is possible even after many years of having the disease.
According to a systematic review of the available evidence of assisted dying published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, eating disorders are being classed as terminal, and at least 60 people with them have been helped to die. To be clear, that is in countries where, as this legislation proposes, assisted dying is legal only for those with a terminal illness.
In the debates in the Commons, Kim Leadbeater MP said she did not want people with anorexia to be included within the scope of the Bill and I agree, but, as it stands, they are. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has called for the Bill to be amended so that it explicitly states that the physical effects of a mental illness such as an eating disorder would not make a person eligible. I urge noble Lords to heed that call. Vulnerable lives must be protected if we are to take this momentous step.