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Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Jan 29 • 12 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

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Thread👇. Second day's evidence in the Assisted Suicide bill committee. Today's witnesses blew apart the idea this bill is safe for vulnerable people. As Dr Jamilla Hussain explained it won't just be a new option for a few, but a new reality for everyone - and a very scary one

(By the way, Dr Hussain contradicted Chris Whitty who told us yesterday that mental capacity assessments are excellent and 6 different docs would all give the same assessment to the same case. The system is not nearly good enough to be relied on, as this Bill does)

On capacity - Chelsea Roff cited evidence of 60 young women with eating disorders being euthanised around the world; all were assessed as having mental capacity.

Don't think it won't happen here. The NHS already treats some patients with eating disorders as terminally ill.

And it's not just eating disorders. People with diabetes... with substance abuse disorders... with HIV... they qualify. Watch:

We heard from Dr Miro Griffiths on the 'arbitrary nonsense' of the 6 month limit, and the fact that as a disabled man he'd qualify for an assisted death

and from Fazilet Hadi of Disability Rights UK, who simply said the NHS discriminates against disabled people as it is

Sam Royston of Marie Curie bluntly showed why palliative care simply isn't in a good enough place for this Bill to be safe

We also had some foreign witnesses, from Australia. This chap boasted that only a few years after introducing Assisted Suicide they are planning to remove safeguards because - yup - 'they're not safeguards but impediments, barriers to equitable access'

Finally some legal input. Unsurprisingly given all we'd heard, Baroness Falkner the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said we shouldn't be looking at the Bill until the Govt has produced its equality impact assessment. Hear hear. Where is it?

And Lord Sumption pointed out that the judicial safeguard is either pointless (a rubber stamp on the doctors' assessment) or if done properly it will overwhelm the courts. He suggested dropping it; which I believe is what the Bill's backers are planning to do.

The central purpose of this Bill - compassion for the vulnerable - is contradicted by advocates for disabled people and other minorities. And now the key defence, which so many MPs cited as a reason for backing it - the High Court judge - is being ditched. We need to think again.

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More from @danny__kruger

Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Mar 20

This week in the Assisted Suicide Bill committee we reached the fatal moment. Between clause 18(9(a)) and 18(9(a)(i)) ‘the person has died’. Summary of changes this week below.

One bright spot amid the darkening scene: the committee accepted my amendment to require the doctor, at the last moment before the drugs are administered, to inform the patient they can change their mind.

But the committee retained the subclause that allows doc to ‘assist the patient to ingest or otherwise self-administer’ the fatal drugs. This subclause overrides the difference between suicide (legal) and euthanasia (illegal, in theory). The doc can put the cup of drugs to the lips of the patient, or press the patient’s finger on a syringe pump.

Read 9 tweets

Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Mar 12

Today the Assisted Suicide Bill committee voted to REMOVE the key safeguard in the Bill that MPs approved at Second Reading in November: the High Court judge who was to decide each application for an assisted death. 1/

At 2R I said the Bill would not be substantially improved (i.e. made safer) in committee, & I was right: we've had a few minor improvements accepted & a lot of major ones rejected. What I didn't anticipate was a very major change in the other direction, to REDUCE a safeguard. 2/

Instead of a neutral, independent judge we'll have a panel of pro-Assisted Suicide experts. They won't be required to ask 'why' the patient wants AS ('none of their business', said an MP on the committee). They won't hear arguments against the application. They can proceed with as little evidence as a phone call from a doctor - no requirement to meet the patient or hear from their family. 3/

Read 6 tweets

Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Mar 11

News from the Assisted Suicide Bill Committee room - an eight hour session, which began with a warning we might have to sit through the night in future to make the deadline the Bill’s backers have set. I regret the haste we’re going at. Anyway, here’s what happened today.

(I’ll be careful because it’s been suggested my tweets are stirring up a hate mob against colleagues on the committee. To be clear: I like and respect the backers of the Bill; their intentions are as good (or bad) as mine, and they don’t deserve any personal abuse.)

Amendments to help stop ‘doctor shopping’ - i.e. re-applying for AS till you find a doc who’ll approve - were voted down. The committee removed the requirement for docs to examine ‘all’ medical records, in favour of just those the doc ‘considers relevant’.

Read 7 tweets

Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Mar 4

Another day in the Assisted Suicide bill committee. A series of amendments to make it safer were rejected.

The committee voted down amendments to ensure doctors can’t suggest AS to patients - even to children. 1/

There will be no requirement of support for those with learning disabilities or autism to ensure they understand what they are agreeing to and are making a free choice. 2/

The sponsor agreed to involve Down Syndrome people and reps in ‘consultation’ on ‘guidance’ - but the committee refused to put statutory protections for this group into the Bill. 3/

Read 7 tweets

Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Jan 30

Thread. Final day of evidence at the Assisted Suicide bill committee. It was by turns personal and philosophical. We heard from relatives of 3 people who had had - or whose families wish they'd had - AS. This was powerful testimony of the suffering we're trying to prevent...

though it added nothing to the consideration of the detail of the Bill. For the third day running we heard from foreign enthusiasts of AS (still no opponents called to give evidence).

One doc said there's no problem with coercion or capacity or complications at the end in Australia... I wondered if this is because they don't collect any data. She said it's 'informal' evidence... and anyway the real problem is people 'coerced' into taking lifesaving treatment!

Read 8 tweets

Danny Kruger

@danny__kruger

Jan 28

Fascinating first day in the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill committee, hearing evidence from experts (most of them pro assisted dying). Main takeaway: it really isn't clear what shape this Bill will be in when it comes back to the Commons. Issues that arose:

Chris Whitty admitted '6 months to live' isn't a precise science (no kidding: a majority of these prognoses turn out to be wrong). His main advice was not to tie doctors' hands with excessive safeguards; docs can judge capacity, and we shd not define 'terminally ill' too tightly.