Open letter to all MPs ahead of the Assisted Dying Bill Debate

We are patients, survivors, carers, health care professionals and campaigners, united by our painful journeys with eating disorders, standing side by side with clinicians and healthcare professionals.  We reach out to you with the raw truth of our lived experiences.

Our lives, those of our loved ones, and those we treat, hang in the balance - yet we find ourselves confronting a healthcare system that too often fails us all. A lack of funding, pervasive stigma, and dangerous treatment practices mean that people with eating disorders are unable to access services - or worse, are told every day that they are untreatable or undeserving of treatment because they are perceived as unmotivated.

As the Assisted Dying Bill is debated this week, we have deep concerns about its implications for those affected by eating disorders

As the Assisted Dying Bill is debated this week, we have deep concerns about its implications for those affected by eating disorders, particularly in the context of rationed care and chronic underfunding.

It is not uncommon for someone in the depths of an eating disorder to say they want to die - to end the unbearable suffering. They may feel hopeless and helpless, isolated, or like a burden on their families. Although the Bill says mental illness alone is not a qualifying condition for assisted death, the physical effects of eating disorders can blur the lines. A person with a severe eating disorder may be seen as terminally ill due to extreme malnutrition. They might even feel relief at the prospect of legally ending their life. If this Bill becomes law, this will become a real option.

Choices made in moments of despair may not reflect a person’s long-term desires.

Choices made in moments of despair may not reflect a person’s long-term desires. This perspective does not account for the profound change that occurs when individuals receive proper, evidence-based treatment. With treatment, the brain’s perspective shifts, and many who once despaired now look back with gratitude that someone believed in them and refused to give up hope.

The risks associated with assisted dying are real. In countries where assisted dying is legal, more than 60 individuals with eating disorders have died, after being given lethal drugs by clinicians who classified their illness as “untreatable.” These patients did not have terminal illnesses. In the UK, we know that similar cases are already occurring. Some people with severe eating disorders are being moved to palliative care by the Court of Protection, labelled “untreatable” after years of repeated admissions with no lasting benefits. However, there is no meaningful discussion about how to improve intensive treatments or address systemic failures.

What is urgently needed is investment: in prevention, early intervention, timely and high-quality standardised treatment without discrimination based on age or length of illness, and research into more effective therapies. But these efforts must not come at the expense of those who are already critically ill. Eating disorders are life-threatening illnesses, but deaths are preventable, regardless of the length or severity of the illness.

We call on MPs to recognise the grave danger this Bill poses to those affected by eating disorders. While the Bill may be well-intentioned in offering “choice” at the end of life, it risks overlooking the unintended consequences for vulnerable individuals. Even one avoidable death is one too many.

The current system fails to listen to those who matter most: the patients, their families, and carers. Instead, it perpetuates a cycle of patient-blaming and covering up poor practice.

To address the growing epidemic of eating disorders with a law that risks unintended harm is short-sighted. Instead, we urge Parliament to prioritise investment in evidence-based care and reform a system that too often abandons those in need.

Kind Regards, 

Richard Quidley MP, carer, Dr Agnes Ayton, Hope Virgo Founder of DumpTheScales, Suzanne Baker, carer representative, James Downs, patient and researcher, Louisa Rose, CEO Beyond. Liv Newman, someone who has suffered with an eating disorder and is now fully recovered. Chelsea Roff, Executive Director of Eat Breathe Thrive, Clare Stevens, parent of someone with anorexia, James Stevens parent of someone with anorexia, Nicky Smith, parent lived experience.Karen O’Neill, expert by experience in anorexia recovery. Alykhan Asaria Claire Emma Lee, parent Sarah McKenna gastro dietitian working in acute. Dr Rachel Evans, psychologist and eating disorder survivor. Eleanor Segall Mandelstam, mental health author and award-winning blogger. Rachel Egan, Campaigner, Jodie Goodacre, Campaigner, Shannon Scott, Group Patient Inclusion Lead Julie Wainwright, Carer Elen Kell Bella Reed, Carer Rachel Fennell NHS senior support worker for U19’s with an ED as well as lived experience. Mary Nannery, a mother of a daughter who survived and is now thriving. Lexi Price-Lonsdal, Helen Missen, Carer Representative, Charley Poultney, lived experience. Lisa Marie Tart lived experience. Emma O’Brien Andrea Weston, lived experience. Anna Carnegie - lived experience, Daniela Cole, George Cole, Ellie Smith, lived experience Emma Price, Carer Claire Robinson - parent of a young adult with anorexia.Clare Laurent, parent of an anorexia sufferer, Molly Lorimer, Fiona Caldwell, Megan Clague, Jane Catlin, parent Phoebe Cavender, Sophie Ann, Rev Dr Sally Nash Associate Minister Hodge Hill Church Dr. Lorna Collins, FHEA, FRSPH, lived experience and creative health researcher