Assisted Dying Bill Has First Reading

With the first reading of Dr Alex Allinson’s private member’s Bill taking place in the House of Keys today, Rebecca Brahde has spoken to Baroness Illora Finlay, who opposes it.

Last week Lady Finlay, a professor of palliative care, spoke to Tynwald members about the detrimental impacts that she believes  a law to allow assisted dying would  have in the island.

A hospice doctor for more than 30 years, she taught thousands of doctors, including Ben Harris, the director of palliative care at the Isle of Man Hospice.

She was invited to speak to Tynwald members on the matter due to her expertise.

Lady Finlay said: ‘I’ve worked in palliative medicine full time since 1987 and I was responsible for implementing the Welsh strategy on palliative care, and the more that I was involved with dying patients, the more I have become aware of the lack of understanding among many clinicians about how much you can do for people when they’re dying.

‘I’ve had many open conversations with patients and I’ve had patients who have said that they were signed up members of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, but then when they got the care they needed, they wanted to carry on living, and that’s been a really recurrent theme over decades.

‘I’ve watched the pressures to change the law.

‘The campaigners for it have usually had a bad experience in the past, sometimes care was simply inadequate.

’Whether you change the law or not, you have to think about the unintended consequences of changing the law.’

She said that out of the bills put forward in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man, she is very concerned about the new law being put forward here.

Lady Finlay added: ‘I think what has been put forward in the Isle of Man is particularly dangerous because the doctor only has to be a registered medical practitioner, so they could have just been practising for two years, they don’t have to have a whole lot of experience, and it’s not being required.

‘The other problem that you have got is you are a small island, you can’t have an independent opinion, as in a population of 85,000 all of the medical staff will know each other, and I’m afraid to say that doctors are quite cautious about disagreeing with each other.

‘For a cremation you need three doctors to sign it off, but for somebody to have their life ended, the proposal is that you would only need two and they could be qualified for two or three years, this to me doesn’t add up.’

She added: ‘There’s loads of evidence that you cannot predict how long somebody has to live.

‘So people are given a life expectancy of six months, some die within weeks, some are alive years later living well.’

Yet campaign group Dignity in Dying believes that momentum is growing for law change on assisted dying across the British Isles.

Dr Alex Allinson MHK said: ‘The current ban on assisted dying is failing dying people in the Isle of Man and across the British Isles.

‘I am delighted to continue the campaign for much-needed reform for the Manx people, backed by the overwhelming majority of the public, and also support the planned legislative changes in Jersey and Scotland.

‘Assisted dying is an issue that can no longer be ignored’.