Would judicial consent for assisted dying protect vulnerable people?

In The BMJ this week, two experts discuss whether the Assisted Dying Bill, to be debated at the House of Commons next month, would provide adequate protection for vulnerable people from harm. The new Bill, presented by Mr Rob Marris MP, proposes legislation that would allow doctors to help terminally ill and mentally competent adults to die by prescribing drugs that patients would administer themselves. Doctors would be required to satisfy themselves that all the designated criteria were met and their approval would be checked by a High Court judge. Jacky Davis, a consultant radiologist at the Whittington Hospital, London, chair of the pressure group Health Professionals for Assisted Dying, and member of the BMA's Ethics Committee, says the proposed safeguards in the Bill "are far more robust than anything in place in the current, confused state of affairs. " In addition, she says it will " result not in more people dying but in fewer people suffering."