1/ MPs have been told that Kim Leadbeater is backing Amendment 14 to address the anorexia loophole.

That’s NOT what the amendment does.

On the eve of the vote, many Members still don’t appear to understand what they’re being asked to vote on.

An explainer below 🧵 2/ What is voluntarily stopping eating & drinking?

VSED is when a person who wants to die deliberately chooses to stop eating AND drinking, in order to bring about their death.

It is NOT the same as anorexia nervosa.

1/ Some academics are advising patients on how to circumvent the terminal illness criteria in assisted dying laws—by refusing food and water until they become “terminal.”

This is already happening in the U.S. The bill before Parliament contains the same loophole. A thread 🧵 2/ In this video, Dr. Thaddeus Pope explains how malnutrition and dehydration can be considered a terminal illness, allowing patients to qualify for assisted suicide by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED).

1/ How many people with anorexia have died by assisted death?

This week in Parliament, witnesses claimed it was "just one or two" women. The evidence tells a different story.

@TheOtherHalf and I sat down with my co-author, Dr. Catherine Cook-Cottone, to unpack the evidence 🧵 2/ Our study identified at least 60 people with eating disorders who died by assisted death—including in Oregon, Colorado, and California, all of which follow the “Oregon model.”

But the true number of deaths in people with eating disorders is likely higher. Here’s why ⬇️

1/ In today’s committee, witnesses with no expertise in eating disorders made inaccurate statements that went unchecked & unchallenged.

MPs and the public were misled about the risks this bill poses to people with eating disorders.

Let’s look at the facts. 🧵👇 2/ @DrNaomiRichards, an anthropologist and researcher in 'end of life studies', told the committee:

“The numbers are really tiny... you’re talking one or two people in the history of assisted dying… it’s a very minor issue.”

This is false.

Yesterday in Parliament, I discussed how the terminal illness safeguard has been made meaningless in the US— where doctors now frame dehydration and malnutrition as “an incurable and irreversible disease.”

The same could happen under the UK bill. Here’s why. 🧵👇 2/ In the US, voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) has been used to circumvent the terminal illness criteria.

A Journal of the American Geriatrics Society article details how a woman in Oregon with mild cognitive impairment qualified by stopping eating and drinking.

Some reflections on giving evidence in Parliament yesterday.

A very intimidating forum to present research, but overall, the committee was respectful and civil—though, at times, painfully unaware of the international evidence on this and even the wording of the bill itself. 🧵⬇️ 2/ I thought it was an interesting choice to put a woman speaking about the deaths of women on a panel with only men — some of whom were all too quick to dismiss concerns that this bill could lead to similar deaths of women in this country.

1/ Today in Parliament, I referenced Court of Protection cases where young women's eating disorders were described as “terminal," "end-stage," and “not treatable."

Here are the receipts. 🧵👇 #AssistedDying 2/ In the UK, courts have already ruled that lifesaving treatment can be withdrawn from young women w/ eating disorders when clincians have presented their condition as "terminal" or irreversible

These cases were framed as a false dichotomy: forced feeding or inevitable death.

People with eating disorders would qualify as terminally ill under this bill, as written.

For those who want a quick summary of our research, here are the key points I did not have time to cover today. 🧵👇 Our study found at least 60 people with eating disorders have died by assisted death internationally, including in jurisdictions where it is only allowed for terminal conditions.

A third were in their teens or twenties. 2/3 under 40. 100% were women.

frontiersin.org/journals/psych…