The second reading of Lauren Edwards’ Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is on Friday 11 September. Together with my Complex Life and Death Decisions colleagues I do not take a position on whether Parliament should legislate, but do take a strong position that any legislation should be good law, both internally and as part of the wider web of the law. Together with my CLADD colleagues Professor Gareth Owen and Professor Katherine Sleeman, I have prepared an updated briefing to set out the problems with the Bill and an alternative way forward for Parliament. This briefing also links to a briefing on eating disorders which has been updated to address the most substantive of three changes between Lauren Edwards’ Bill and that of Kim Leadbeater MP, a recast of the attempt to exclude eating disorders from the scope of eligibility. This latter briefing explains both how that change cannot fully achieve the goal of excluding those with eating disorders from its scope, but also how the example of eating disorders highlights the trade-offs involved in legislating for assisted dying.
