Patients applying for assisted suicide won’t need to tell their family.

UK assisted suicide bill will have a death panel approving death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide bill that is being debated in the UK is currently being reviewed and amended by a government committee. Leadbeater has accepted several amendments to the bill including the replacement of a high court judge to approve every assisted death to a death panel.

An article by Janet Eastham that was published in the Telegraph on February 13 explains that families will not need to be informed about an assisted suicide application. Eastham reports:

The proposal, which was released on Thursday night, reveals panels could be held “in private” at the applicant’s request.

It said: “The chair of a panel may, at the request of the person to whom a referral relates, decide that the panel is to sit in private.”

Families will not need to be informed before, during, or after an application is considered.

Eastham further explains that family members will not need to be told about the assisted suicide:

The amendments detail at length the commissioner’s role, staff, pay, and secondments but say little about how the panels will make decisions.

Lawyers told The Telegraph that it was not clear the panels would be able to take evidence on oath, nor that they would have powers to compel witnesses or request medical records.

Panels would not even need to hear from the person requesting an assisted death. The amendment only stipulates that the three members “may hear from and may question the person to whom the referral relates or … their proxy.”

The Leadbeater bill passed at second reading in parliament. Once the government committee has completed it's amendments to the bill, it will return to parliament for a final debate and a third reading (final) vote.

We hope that the committee changes to the Leadbeater bill will cause it to be defeated.