Royal College of Physicians join criticism of Assisted Dying bill

MPs prepare to consider more than 100 potential amendments

In a sign that medical opposition is hardening against the assisted dying legislation…, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) warned that it risked “failing to protect vulnerable patients” and would set up a system that falls short of doctors' professional standards.

Karl Turner, a Labour MP who backed the bill in November, ….told the Daily Telegraph: “I just don’t think I should be God at the minute. It’s not my job. I’ve got enough on my plate.” Debbie Abrahams, who abstained last time, said that she would now vote against the bill.

More than a dozen MPs have shifted against the bill since an initial vote in November but the Commons is not expected to have its final say on the full legislation until next month.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) (had) said that it did not do enough to protect those with mental disorders.

John Dean, the RCP’s clinical vice-president, said: “The bill in its current form has concerning deficiencies. Notably, the proposed mechanisms of decision-making are not in line with good clinical and professional practice.”

While Leadbeater’s bill is limited to those with six months to live, Dean warned it was “extremely hard to tell” how long patients had left and said this was “such an area of uncertainty that I don’t think has been emphasised enough” in debate on the bill……….in order to fulfil the (six month) requirements of the bill, practitioners make that prognosis without fully understanding or representing the level of uncertainty if they felt a patient was expressing the desire for assisted dying."

NHS palliative care is also not consistently good enough to avoid patients opting for assisted dying for lack of other options, Dean warned.

Leadbeater…is resisting an attempt by opponents to offer specific legal protections for hospices, and has rejected an amendment that would ban doctors from raising the topic of assisted dying, describing it as a “gag clause”.

Opponents of assisted dying will, however, press for other changes, including a requirement for private clinics to publish how much profit they make from providing assisted dying. They also want the assisted dying commissioner, who would oversee the system and has been dubbed an “unaccountable death tsar”, to have to report to the chief medical officer.

Read The Times (£) here