Coercion checks to be toughened up in ‘world’s safest’ assisted dying Bill

Doctors will be asked to carry out mental capacity and coercion assessments for every patient who requests , under proposed changes to the Bill.

MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the legislation, has tabled amendments to ensure the Bill is the “best, strongest and safest in the world”.

Medics who are willing to provide the service would also undergo specific training about assessing capacity and spotting coercion.

Ms Leadbeater said the amendments were drafted after discussions with ministers, parliamentary drafters and officials at both the Department of Health and Social Care and Ministry of Justice.

She added: “All this work reflects the will of the House at Second Reading to support the principle of the Bill and to take it to the next stage of rigorous scrutiny by the committee, and that’s what is now happening.

“It is extremely important to get the details of the legislation right, and enhance it where necessary, particularly with regard to safeguards.

“But we must also not lose sight of the fact that the current legal situation is unacceptable and deeply problematic, inflicting terrible injustices on terminally ill people and their families at their most vulnerable time.”

Another amendment would require doctors to set out all treatment and end-of-life options available when raising assisted dying with a patient for the first time.

And the training and regulations around mental capacity would be crafted with the support of relevant experts and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Members of the Bill committee will vote on each amendment as they carry out line-by-line scrutiny of the legislation, starting on Tuesday.

MPs heard evidence last week from dozens of experts who shared their views on matters including palliative care, the potential impact of legalising assisted dying on disabled people, and the possibility of legal challenges seeking to widen the law.

England’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir , told the committee that doctors were accustomed to assessing mental capacity.

And he appealed for safeguards to be kept simple. Sir Chris added: “What we don’t want is a system which is very difficult for them to navigate so they spent their entire last six months – if this bill is passed and they choose to take account of it, which is a minority – essentially stuck in a bureaucratic thicket.”

Ms Leadbeater said she was conscious of that point and did not want the system to become “too difficult for a person in the last six months of their life to navigate”.

She added: “We need to give terminally ill people choice, autonomy and dignity whilst ensuring the most rigorous safeguards are embedded in the legislation.

“With that in mind, I believe this Bill provides an opportunity to develop the very best end of life care, conversations and choice with ‘gold standard’ training.”

Meanwhile, an inquest into the death of terminally ill boy 40 years ago has concluded that it may have been “hastened” by his mother.

Seven-year-old Hamish Cooper died at home in Frilford, Oxfordshire, in December 1981 while suffering from a rare and aggressive cancer, neuroblastoma.

His mum Antonya Cooper told the last year she had given him a large dose of morphine to spare him further pain.

Ms Cooper was also terminally ill with cancer and died before police had a chance to formally interview her about the claims.

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Darren Salter said Hamish’s death was “expected and he was prescribed morphine at home, with an agreed medical plan for his mother to administer this as required for pain relief”.

He added: “Hamish died in the early hours of the 1 December 1981, due to acute anaemia caused by neuroblastoma, with metastasis. His death may have been hastened by morphine administered to him.”