MPs to consider ‘unbearable suffering’ in assisted dying/assisted suicide inquiry
MPs will probe access to assisted dying/assisted suicide on grounds of ‘unbearable suffering’ in the third session of the Committee’s inquiry.
Meeting details
At 9:30am: Oral evidence
Inquiry
Assisted dying/assisted suicide
Professor of Intellectual Disability and Palliative Care at Kingston University London
Oncologist, Emeritus Professor of medicine and medical ethics, End of-Life Care Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussels
Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and former President at Royal Dutch Medical Association
At 10:15am: Oral evidence
Inquiry
Assisted dying/assisted suicide
Professor and Head, Division of Palliative Care at University of Ottawa
Professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy, Faculty of Law at University of Toronto
Adjunct Professor Psychiatry, University of Michigan; Senior Investigator at Department of Bioethics at National Institutes of Health USA
Questions will be put to experts from Belgium and the Netherlands where eligibility is based on ‘constant and unbearable suffering’ without prospect of improvement. The situation in Canada where legislation permits assisted dying/assisted suicide for non-terminal conditions will be examined in the second panel.
Safeguards around informed consent, the monitoring of cases, and the role of palliative and end of life care are among issues to be addressed.