Pro-assisted suicide Peers call for ‘death doulas’

Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill should legislate for ‘death doulas’ under a new ‘national assisted suicide service’, two Peers have recommended.

Lord Birt, backed by Lord Pannick KC, in a series of amendments to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, are calling for the appointment of state-funded “Personal Navigators” to help streamline the assisted suicide process.

An unprecedented number of amendments have been tabled to Kim Leadbeater’s Private Member’s Bill in the House of Lords. So far, only twenty-eight have been debated.

Assisted suicide packs

Central to Lord Birt and Lord Pannick’s plans is Amendment 771, which would require the Government to “establish an Assisted Dying Help Service (‘ADHS’) as part of the National Health Service”.

It states that the ADHS “must provide a Personal Navigator for every person requesting assistance under this Act, who acts to ensure that the services required by the person concerned are delivered as required and to the timelines set out in this Act”.

The Peers’ Amendment 223 stipulates that a ‘Navigator’ must be assigned the day after “a preliminary discussion” about assisted suicide takes place.

Among other duties, the ADHS must “provide publicly available information” on assisted suicide and appoint members to assisted suicide review panels.

’18 days to death’

Baroness Coffey, a former Health Secretary, said: “I don’t want the National Health Service to become the National Death Service.”

She continued: “This increases my concerns that people who feel a burden will more readily think they should take their own lives”.

Nikki da Costa, former Director of Legislative Affairs at 10 Downing Street, described the proposals as “horrific”. She warned that the “Navigator’s job is to get you through the system as quickly as possible. They mandate a MAX timeline of 30 days, or 18 days to death”.

The UK Government has allocated a further ten days for the House of Lords to consider the Bill, including more than a thousand remaining amendments at Committee.