Mark Taubert

Watching MPs debate the Terminally Ill Adults Bill in recent weeks has left me and fellow clinicians wondering how many of them have been to a specialist palliative care unit. It has raised a concern about whether people understand what palliative care actually provides, and what we clinicians actually do. How many people have an idea about what hospices and palliative care teams can help with, and would knowing more about such services strengthen calls to make them core parts of NHS provision? Palliative care and assisted dying have seemed in opposition in recent weeks, with people picking sides as though they were rival football teams. I work in a sector that has had to rely heavily on charity and fundraising, which only goes so far.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP in charge of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill currently going through its committee stage, has repeatedly called on Tory MP Danny Kruger not to use the term 'suicide' in relation to proposed new laws on assisted dying. This is not the first time proponents of assisted suicide have tried to distance themselves from the 's-word'. But just this week, Kruger once again had to reiterate in parliament why clarity of language is so important in this debate. The dictionary defines suicide as 'the act or an instance of ending one's own life intentionally and voluntarily'.

This week, the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater finally put forward the much-awaited bill on assisted dying, which will likely be discussed in the coming weeks. Supporters of the bill have been campaigning on the issue for years, with legislation on the topic most recently rejected by the House of Commons in 2015. This bill, however, is little better. Above all, in its vagueness it fails to outline what drugs can legally be administered to help someone end their life. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, as it is officially known, simply states that 'the Secretary of State must, by regulations, specify one or more drugs or other substances for the purposes of the Act'.