MPs will look to close a potential anorexia loophole in the assisted dying bill that psychiatrists fear could result in people with severe eating disorders using it to end their lives.
The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney, who sits on the committee of MPs that will scrutinise the proposed law, is tabling an amendment to tighten the language around mental capacity.
MPs will this week begin examining Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill line by line ahead of the next parliamentary vote in April. They are expected to take evidence from external experts in the last week of January and begin to consider any proposed amendments.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists expressed some concern about the bill and its reference to mental capacity. It said many people with mental disorders such as anxiety or depression would be deemed to have capacity, though under the terms of the bill they would also need to have a terminal illness with less than six months to live.
But the college said the wording of the bill “could also be interpreted to include those whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental disorder.”
It said: “While anorexia nervosa, for example, does not itself meet the criteria for terminal illness … its effects (malnutrition) in severe cases could be deemed by some as a terminal physical illness, even though eating disorders are treatable conditions and recovery is possible even after decades of illness.”
Olney’s amendment replaces “capacity” with “ability” – where the person seeking an assisted death must be able to fully understand and weigh the information.
She told the Guardian: “The Mental Capacity Act is not designed to enable people to make a decision about ending their own life, that is why the suicide prevention approach of the Mental Health Act makes no reference to capacity.
“As the Royal College of Psychiatrists have pointed out, people could have a co-occurring mental disorder which impacts their decision and still be considered to have capacity.
“My amendment would replace capacity with a functional test of ability and it will ensure that only those who can fully understand the nature of their decision can choose an assisted death. This key safeguard will, for example, protect those suffering from eating disorders.”
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MPs scrutinising assisted dying legislation will have three full days in the final week of January to hear public evidence from health and ethics experts and begin to explore a range of possible amendments. The committee will then meet twice weekly for public scrutiny sessions of the bill until the last week of April.
The health minister Stephen Kinnock and the justice minister Sarah Sackman will be on the bill committee for its next stage in parliament, after each voting in favour of the legislation. The committee is balanced 14-9 in favour, a 60% majority.
