Pro-assisted suicide MPs have long claimed that anorexia isn’t deemed a terminal illness and wouldn’t qualify an individual for assisted suicide under the assisted suicide legislation making it’s way through Parliament.
However, a recent tragic case highlights that this is simply not true: anorexia is sometimes deemed ‘terminal’ and ‘untreatable’ by medical staff.
This proves how the assisted suicide bill will endanger the lives of people struggling with severe anorexia.
So what does this story reveal about the perception of ‘terminal’ anorexia, and how will this bill both change society’s dedication to saving life and our opposition to suicide?
25-year-old told her anorexia is ‘terminal’ and left to die
Last week, the Telegraph reported the story of a 25-year-old with severe anorexia who has been doomed to die after clinicians decided her anorexia was “untreatable”.
Patricia, who has struggled with anorexia for years, hasn’t walked in 2 years and was eventually told her anorexia is ‘terminal’.
After she refused treatment, a Court of Protection order in 2023 upheld her decision and claimed she had ‘autonomy’ to refuse treatment. The judge, Mr Justice Moor said Patricia would likely die within days of the court ruling, due to her extreme frailty.
However, still fighting for life, Patricia is desperate to live.
In messages sent to her Aunt, she pleads: “I don’t want to die…I’m terrified. Please help me more.”
Barrister Oliver Lewis, who is representing Patricia’s family as they fight for her to be force fed to save her life, said Patricia’s anorexia is so severe that she “cannot distinguish between broader wishes [‘I want to live’] and the narrower ones regarding life-saving interventions [‘I don’t want NG feeding’].”
Lewis also says, “It is far too early to let this 25-year-old woman die when medical treatment is available that could prevent her death.”
Patricia’s family knows she wants to live and are desperate to save her life, even if that means saving her from herself – yet the hospital has already decided her life is a lost cause.
The best solution would be for Patricia to realise her dire need for treatment and agree to be tube fed. However, because her mental illness is preventing her from making this decision, staff must take action to do what is best for her and give her the treatment she needs to survive.
This is even more crucial due to her clear and desperate desire to live.
Assisted suicide supporters claim anorexia isn’t treated as a ‘terminal illness’, but this case proves otherwise.
If assisted suicide is legalised, people like Patricia would be eligible under the law’s criteria.
How many people, with a reversible illness like anorexia, will be deemed ‘unsavable’ and funnelled towards the more cost effective – and less care-intensive – option of assisted suicide?
This bill opens the door for understaffed, underfunded and highly overburdened medical institutions to be incentivised and authorised to offer death instead of treatment to patients who could recover fully if given the chance.
Will this bill endanger the lives of people with severe anorexia, offering assisted suicide as a cheaper and easier solution that extensive treatment?
