Key Points on Clause 7

The Isle of Man Medical Society gave evidence along with a pharmacist in the House of Keys last week, June 11th, on clause 7 of the Assisted Dying Bill.

Key points made were

1.     Doctors on the island do not want this. 74% of doctors on the island oppose the bill because of the dangerous impact it will have on vulnerable groups in society including the elderly, the disabled and those with mental health problems.

2. No consultation. There has been no official consultation with key stakeholders on the island at any point in the progression of this bill. There has been no official consultation with the IOMMS, with IOM nursing groups, with IOM pharmacist groups or with Hospice IOM. There has been no consultation with Manx Care or the DHSC, despite that fact that the mover of the bill has made it clear that this is to be provided by the health service. There has been no risk or impact assessment to look at the possible negative effects on health care and there has been no attempt at costing the service.

3. No licence or regulation of drugs. No drugs are licensed for this use anywhere in the world. There has been little to no research into their parameters at such high doses and there is no peer-reviewed literature to guide best practice in compounding these medications.

4. Against GMC regulations. Doctors on the IOM will be acting against GMC regulations if they are involved in this and will be putting their license to practice and therefore their jobs and livelihoods at risk.

5. Myth of an assisted death necessarily being a good death - take a pill and slip away is absolutely untrue. The reality is that at different times 4-5 different drugs have been used in varying combinations at doses 25-300 times normal. How they work and the side effects have not been systematically studied. But the partial reports that exist reveal complications such as vomiting, choking, burning pain, seizures and failure. Time from taking drugs to death ranges from 1min to 137 hours. 30% take 1-6 hours and 6.6% take over 7 hrs.

This Bill is clearly condemned by most professionals, it lacks due diligence, it risks severely shortening the lives of many vulnerable people, it distracts from the urgent problems in Manx health and social care, it turns on its head the dictum 'first of all do no harm' offering killing in place of caring, it is unfunded but is requiring inordinate amounts of expensive MHK and government officer time, and despite all this it is being allowed to progress by MHKs.