Palliative care assessment 'can change assisted death decision'

ALL patients seeking an assisted death need to have a palliative care assessment, a leading medic in the field told Parliament.

- ABBIE LLWELYN and RHIANNON JAMES

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a professor of palliative medicine, urged that this safeguard be added to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as peers continued their line-by-line scrutiny of the legislation on Friday.

Lady Finlay, a professor of palliative medicine at Cardiff University School of Medicine and consultant at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, told peers that this assessment was essential for informed consent, so that patients can make their decision with the full knowledge of what options are available.

The independent crossbencher also noted that access to appropriate specialist palliative care can make people change their minds about wanting an assisted death.

She said: "When patients access appropriate specialist palliative care, the desire for a hastened death is often alleviated, and they experience improved quality of life they never believed possible."

Lady Finlay called for all those seeking an assisted death to have their needs "fully assessed by a multi-professional specialist palliative care team, and appropriate care provided to the extent necessary to enable them to decide whether such care would affect their wish to end their life".

She added: "I would stress that this is not a bad faith amendment.