Calls for dementia test in assisted death cases

PATIENTS must have a dementia assessment before they can seek an assisted death, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said.

- GEORGE THOMPSON AND RHIANNON JAMES

The independent crossbencher insisted the move was necessary to ensure patients have the capacity to make proper decisions as peers continued their line-by-line scrutiny of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday.

Lady Grey-Thompson called for the assessment to be added to the controversial Bill, warning a "significant proportion" of people with dementia or cognitive impairment go undiagnosed until the later stages of the disease.

The Paralympian said: "If one in three people with dementia are never diagnosed, then one in three potential applicants under this Bill may have an unrecognised impairment in capacity. This is not a margin of error that any legislature can reasonably accept."

She was supported by independent crossbencher Baroness O’Loan, who argued the assessment should be within the three months preceding any application for an assisted death.