New polling has revealed that Scots are “deeply worried” that people with eating disorders like anorexia may be able to end their lives by assisted suicide if it is made legal in Scotland.
The polling, which was commissioned by women’s policy think tank The Other Half and surveyed 1,004 Scots, found that only 20% of respondents would support legislation that allowed patients with anorexia to end their lives by assisted suicide.
Chief executive of The Other Half, Fiona Mackenzie, said “Scottish people are deeply worried about one of the appalling outcomes of assisted dying law, which we warn will result [even] if those passing the law have the best intentions”.
“Liam McArthur MSP has said his Bill will be like Oregon, but in Oregon, people with anorexia have been assisted in suicide by the state”, she added.
A review conducted by the eating disorder charity Eat Breathe Thrive found that there have been at least 60 cases of people with eating disorders ending their lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia across the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Mackenzie criticised this development, drawing attention to the fact that all of these cases were women who were “given lethal drugs by the very doctors meant to help them recover”.
Assisted suicide for people with anorexia has been an ongoing concern in Scotland
Last year, The Times reported that Scotland’s assisted suicide proposals could allow people with anorexia to end their lives by assisted suicide, even though they could make a full recovery with the proper care and support.
Chelsea Roff, the founder of Eat Breathe Thrive, said that some physicians are likely to give people with anorexia a terminal diagnosis because “they’re likely to suffer a premature death, because the physical consequences associated linked with their mental illness are likely to bring about their death”.
“And there are some clinicians who believe that after a certain number of years, people are very unlikely to recover. Starvation is a really terrible way to die”, she added.
Previously, Professor David Albert Jones, Director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, has argued that the broad definition of terminal illness present in the Scottish assisted suicide Bill could allow state-assisted suicide for people suffering from anorexia.
“Terminal in the Scottish Bill is defined as someone having a progressive incurable disease from which you could die. It could cover anorexia. There have been cases of people with anorexia having [assisted suicide] dying in Oregon in the US”, he said.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “People with eating disorders like anorexia need care and support to recover from their condition. What they do not need is a doctor who will help them to end their lives. This is not what healthcare professionals should do, and it is alarming that the assisted suicide Bill in Scotland may be open to this possibility”.
“That these issues still remain in the Bill signals just how deeply flawed and dangerous this proposed legislation is. MSPs should commit to protecting these vulnerable people and vote against this Bill next week”.
