Assisted: Death and Women

About Assisted: Death and Women

Women are dying under assisted dying laws at rates that should alarm us all—but few people are paying attention. Assisted, hosted by Chelsea Roff and Fiona Mackenzie, dives into the data and stories behind it, asking why these laws disproportionately impact women and what it says about society’s view of illness, disability, and care. Through conversations with researchers, policymakers, and families navigating the fallout, Assisted explores the vulnerabilities these laws expose—and what that means for all of us. otherhalforg.substack.com (https://otherhalforg.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

The Other Half

Category

news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Jan 2025

Latest episode

3 Jul 2025

Latest episodes

17 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   3 Jul 2025

   "This is not a Government bill. It is just a Private Members Bill"

   Legal expert Nikki Da Costa explains how the Private Members Bill on Assisted Dying faces challenges in the House of Lords despite passing in the Commons, as this is an interview.

2. 

   15 Jun 2025

   The Killers

   This episode explores the story of Robert Hunter, who killed his wife, and Nicholas Reed, a campaigner from EXIT, who advocated for "mercy killers," revealing the complexities and consequences of the euthanasia movement in the 1980s.

3. 

   27 Apr 2025

   "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil"

   MPs listening to the Assisted Dying Bill committee here at Westminster may have felt comforted as the invited Australian witnesses told them that all was well there, that any issues in implementation had been ironed out by the professionals. But we needed to hear the straight truth, and so we asked Robert Clark, who was in parliament when Victorian Assisted Death legislation was passed, if Westminster MPs should feel reassured by what they heard from Australian witnesses: “No, absolutely not” Robert is clear that he tried to stop the Victorian bill as an MP, but that things there have turned out even worse than he feared. In their regime, which he says has been “designed to find out nothing, investigate nothing, report nothing that could cast any doubt on it being anything other than an unblemished success”: * Doctors are trained to assess that patients are acting ‘voluntarily and without coercion’ in choosing to die. But that training is online, e-learning. And shockingly, only 5 minutes of that training is spent on detecting coercion, or domestic violence. * No one has been turned down for assisted suicide in Victoria in the last two years. * The Australian state of Victoria was the first to implement assisted dying in the “Australian model”. As other states implemented assisted dying, they went further each time, and now Victoria seeks to catch up on the basis of ‘equality’. This is a warning for us, with England & Wales and Scotland considering law, and the Isle of Man having already decided to implement assisted death: that each will push further on grounds of equality. * The slippery slope is even steeper: just days after telling Holyrood MSPs that there was no slippery slope, the Victorian VAD Board published a report with an appendix containing number of safeguards which are proposed for removal. The government is now taking forward proposals just like these. Safeguards, become barriers. * That Victorian law was the project of their Premier, who pushed this through in a “disgraceful” rushed process with late night sittings and a report that read more like a euthanasia advocacy document” * The change of attitudes within medical practice: as those who don’t want to participate in assisted death are pushed out “victimised”, and as suicide becomes the response to suffering. Chelsea and Fiona were strangers, new to assisted dying. We wanted to make sure that we had some robust debate on what assisted death might mean for all of us - and especially women. We’ve made it into the Westminster debate and into the press, but please consider a paid subscription so we can continue to make these interviews. What else is happening in assisted dying? It looks like assisted dying is coming to Holyrood on or about the 15th May. Write to your MSPs to tell them if you have concerns over this bill. We’ll talk more about the Scottish bill before then, but it does go further than the Westminster bill in allowing children (16+) to die. Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

4. 

   15 Apr 2025

   "This idea that human life is worth it - people want to chip away at that. That's very dangerous."

   This week Chelsea and Fiona speak to Professor Louis Appleby, psychiatrist and academic researches suicide prevention. Prof Appleby is also the UK government adviser on suicide prevention, although he speaks freely here as an academic. This discussion obviously touches on suicide and suicidality, but it’s hard to imagine a more decent and thoughtful guide to the important work of preventing suicide, through giving hope and a future to those at their most vulnerable. What Louis has to say blows open the idea that assisted dying (aka suicide) can be separated from suicide prevention: MPs and campaigners must take note. He tells us: That those traumatised people - like victims of abuse - who are so often failed by services are the people who find themselves eligible for assisted dying: where instead of helping them to live, the state assists them to die. That society wants suicide prevention and the dangers of assisted dying chipping away at this historical consensus that suicide should be prevented. His response to the claims by Bill Committee witness that assisted dying is in fact a form of suicide prevention: (“It’s nonsense”). His horror at the invented diagnosis of terminal anorexia, and what that says about giving up on those with eating disorders. We make this free so that everyone can learn about the impact of assisted dying. Please consider a paid subscription to support us to do this work. What else is happening in the world of Assisted Death? * Have you written to your MP? Labour’s Jess Asato is holding an event in parliament and we want your MP to attend: tell them how you feel today (https://theotherhalf.uk/write-to-your-mp-on-ad) * UK man arrested on suspicion of assisting suicides (https://www.itv.com/news/2025-04-08/man-arrested-in-uk-over-assisted-suicide-says-hes-being-probed-about-29-deaths) of 29 people in Switzerland. Limited information in this ongoing criminal matter but absolutely worth watching the ITV report on this. * The big next stage for MPs on the Assisted Dying bill has been delayed to the 16th May, after local elections. Please share this widely. Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

5. 

   13 Apr 2025

   "The drugs have been abandoned in judicial executions because they were inhumane"

   This week on Assisted Death and Women podcast, we speak with two experts on the real life outcomes of assisted dying. Professor Julian Hughes, who's been a doctor for 31 years and a consultant in old age psychiatry for over 20 years, and Baroness Finlay, a professor of palliative medicine who has been in the field for over 40 years and is a crossbench member of the House of Lords. In 2024 they edited ‘The Reality of Assisted Dying: Understanding the Issues (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reality-Assisted-Dying-Understanding-Issues-ebook/dp/B0DDG1FX7D/)’ with contributions from 40 authors. They help us understand some of the outcomes you won’t hear anywhere else: * How Belgian evidence on the drugs used in assisted dying tells us these are abandoned in some judicial executions as they are viewed to be inhumane. * Despite hopes of MPs and campaigners, “rates of non-assisted suicides go up” in jurisdictions where assisted suicide is legalised. * “They’re automatically thinking this will destroy the bill”. Baroness Finlay’s concerns on the genuinely improving amendments which were rejected by MPs considering the Westminster bill. * Why Baroness Finlay believes the bill will pass the next vote by MPs despite misgivings of many - “they will want to please Kier” What else is happening in the world of Assisted Death? * Have you written to your MP? Labour’s Jess Asato is holding an event in parliament and we want your MP to attend: tell them how you feel today (https://theotherhalf.uk/write-to-your-mp-on-ad) * UK man arrested on suspicion of assisting suicides (https://www.itv.com/news/2025-04-08/man-arrested-in-uk-over-assisted-suicide-says-hes-being-probed-about-29-deaths) of 29 people in Switzerland. Limited information in this ongoing criminal matter but absolutely worth watching the ITV report on this. * The big next stage for MPs on the Assisted Dying bill has been delayed to the 16th May, after local elections. Please consider becoming a paid supporter of this podcast: so it remains free for all. Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

6. 

   29 Mar 2025

   "The Devil is in the detail. This is a bad bill at the wrong time."

   She won 16 medals for wheelchair racing - and set 35 world records. Now, Baroness Grey-Thompson is one of our powerhouses in the House of Lords, and she’s been talking about assisted suicide, and euthanasia, for many years - here she is in 2014 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-28342849) on one of the many previous bills put before parliament. On the podcast Tanni Grey-Thompson tells us: * Of safeguard after safeguard rejected by the MPs considering the bill: even training for those raising this with people with learning disabilities or Down’s Syndrome. * how often people think becoming disabled is what would cause them to need assisted suicide. Baroness Grey-Thompson was told by someone in central lobby of parliament: “if my life was like yours, I’d want to kill myself” * Why this bill will affect disabled people - and why she wants honesty from Assisted Dying campaigners. All our work on Assisted Death and Women is FREE. But we need your support, please consider a paid subscription if you can: In Other News on Assisted Dying this week Naz Shah MP “is particularly worried about the impact the legislation could have on women. “This is a gendered bill,” she insisted. “It will affect women more from a femicide perspective.” Jane Monckton-Smith, a leading authority on coercive control, has described the bill as “the worst thing potentially that we’ve ever done to domestic abuse victims”. Shah believes the bill “is ultimately an amendment to the Suicide Act. That worries me,” she said, pointing out that deaths by suicide among victims of domestic abuse now surpass the number (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/25/domestic-abusers-driving-more-victims-to-suicide-warn-police) killed by an intimate partner.” First interview with Naz Shah, the MP who has been so impressive in arguing to protect women in the bill committee. (https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/society/2025/03/naz-shah-interview-assisted-dying-bill-is-not-fit-for-purpose) New Statesman, register to read. Naz Shah MP’s interview with Hannah Barnes features a quote from our podcast ASSISTED with Prof Jane Monckton Smith. Listen here: Have you written to your MP? Labour’s Jess Asato is holding an event in parliament and we want your MP to attend: tell them how you feel today (https://theotherhalf.uk/write-to-your-mp-on-ad) Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

7. 

   16 Mar 2025

   "There's a playbook. They know what they're doing and they know how to do it"

   You might think that assisted dying campaign has new momentum in the UK, but as Olivier award winning actor and longtime disability rights (https://x.com/TheNotDeadYetUK) activist Liz Carr tells us, the campaign has been fierce back to at least the 1990s. Liz has been exploring the potential for great harm in assisted death for years: she presented this documentary series for the BBC World Service in 2013 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qzyhw/episodes/player), and made the truly excellent recent BBC TV piece Better Off Dead? (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z8wc). Chelsea and Fiona relished the opportunity to talk to someone who knows the campaign for assisted dying so well. This podcast is FREE forever, but we are funded only by your generosity. Please consider a £ subscription. We learned: * How the campaign for AD has focused on cultural change - something high profile campaigners planned to take 10-20 years. * About the impressive collaboration between international dying organisations, with a ‘playbook’ for winning the campaign. * What Dignity in Dying did next when they lost the last big bill in 2015 - working hard within the medical organisations to change positions from ‘hostile’ to neutral, as announced yesterday with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Previously The RCGP were the target of joint legal challenge from Dignity in Dying and the Good Law Project (https://x.com/OtherHalfOrg/status/1900644443641766233). * How Liz found visiting the death clinics, which look like ‘student digs’ and are the “worst place in the world to die” * Why it doesn’t matter what happens in the committee, Liz thinks, as each day bill sponsor brings it back to the invited visitors in the committee room, who face deaths they do not want. * That no one actually gets prosecuted for going to Dignitas. What else happened this week in the world of assisted dying Dirty politics: Kim Leadbetter’s aide silently and uninvited attended a private meeting on women’s vulnerability to assisted dying, to some (https://x.com/kesleeman/status/1900871342129299533) outrage (https://x.com/JamillaHussain1/status/1900867022059184397) from (https://x.com/JoCostello20/status/1900922066242600985) women (https://x.com/LucyHunterB/status/1900980139028033619). [The Times (https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/why-im-losing-faith-in-the-assisted-dying-bill-d2bqkpcjj)] More women’s organisations speak clearly: The CEO of JK Rowling’s charity for women told Scottish MSPs that “state-sanctioned killing” could open the gates to a “perpetrator’s ultimate act of control”. [The Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/14/harry-potter-jk-rowling-assisted-dying-bill-scotland-abuse/)] Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

8. 

   8 Mar 2025

   "It will not make the bill completely safe."

   We’re joined by a very special guest: MP for Lowestoft Jess Asato. A new MP in 2024, Jess worked in the domestic abuse sector and with children’s charity Barnardo’s before entering parliament. Her amendment, to train doctors who assess for assisted dying in domestic abuse, coercive control and financial abuse, is one of the few safeguards which have been accepted by the Assisted Death bill committee. Earlier this week, Fiona and Chelsea joined Jess at a meeting of voices from across the women’s sector where for the first time, they shared concerns and practical thoughts about how this bill might affect us all. We caught Jess after that meeting to explore what we learned and why this assisted dying bill cannot be completely safe for women. An Action for #IWD2025 If you are concerned about the potential impacts of the assisted dying bill at Westminster, this week we’d like you to write to your MP (MP's contact details at Parliament website (https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP)) and ask them to attend Jess Asato’s event on safeguarding women in Assisted Dying. Your MP can get the time and date from Jess’s team. This podcast is funded only by your generosity and will always be free to hear. Please consider a paid subscription if you can. We ask Jess Asato: * why she as a new MP decided she would step in to the debate on assisted dying * if her amendment now makes the bill completely safe for victims of domestic abuse (her answer is No). * What she learned from listening to voices from different walks of life on the potential for assisted death to harm the vulnerable Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

9. 

   2 Mar 2025

   "This bill is going to be the worst thing potentially that we've ever done to domestic abuse victims"

   This coming week the committee for the Assisted Death Bill at Westminster will consider whether doctors assessing for assisted death should be given training on coercive control and financial abuse. The Other Half think that many hundreds of domestic abuse victims will be given assisted deaths each year - see our written evidence here (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmpublic/TerminallyIllAdults/memo/TIAB104.pdf). That’s why we’re so pleased to talk to one of the leading experts in domestic homicide here in the UK - Professor Jane Monckton Smith. Once a police officer, she is now Professor of Public Protection at the University of Gloucestershire and the author of In Control (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/21/jane-monckton-smith-in-control-domestic-abuse-murder-public-protection), which upends the myth that a domestic homicide is a loss of control. This work is funded only by your generosity. Please consider subscribing. In this astonishing conversation we ask: * Why is no one talking about domestic abuse, coercive control and assisted dying? * The UK is a trailblazer in defining coercive control in legislation. Why would we think other countries with assisted dying have good models for dealing with coercion into assisted death? * How suicide of domestic abuse victims is so overlooked: and how this dwarfs homicides by perpetrators. What might suicide look like if lawful death is on offer? * How abusers think when illness hits their victim and their control is disrupted. How this leads to victims of abuse being more likely to be diagnosed only when their illness is terminal and not treatable. * Why training in domestic abuse is a good amendment to make to this bill: but Jane is sceptical given we call all the time for more training for police and agencies. We want MPs to hear what Professor Monckton Smith has to say, so please share this widely. Last week the committee voted down all safeguards supported by eating disorder charities. Still little sign of this bill becoming the safest law in the world. Will this change? Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

10. 

    23 Feb 2025

    "It feels like get Brexit done" | Assisted: Episode 7

    In Westminster this week, MPs will reconvene to continue line-by-line scrutiny of the Assisted Dying Bill. As the committee returns, key questions remain: Could people with conditions such as diabetes and anorexia be considered terminally ill? Are doctors equipped to detect coercion and ensure vulnerable women are not pressured into ending their lives? How will the lethal drug regimens used in assisted death be regulated? And with palliative care services already underfunded and overstretched, could this bill leave some patients feeling they have no real choice but to end their lives? In this episode, we speak with Professor Katherine Sleeman, Laing Galazka Chair in Palliative Care at King’s College London, and Professor Mark Taubert, Professor of Palliative Medicine and a Palliative Care Consultant at Velindre Cancer Centre. They share their concerns about the consequences of the bill, the practical realities of implementing so-called safeguards, and the grave risks that may arise if eligibility criteria are left open to interpretation. Drawing from their own experience working in the NHS and international evidence, they leave us wondering if protections that sound robust on paper can withstand real-world pressures— and what this could mean for the future of end-of-life care in the UK. Some helpful references Mark and Katherine discussed: * Efficacy and safety of drugs used for 'assisted dying' (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35512347/) * The Doctors Who Invented a New Way to Help People Die (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/medical-aid-in-dying-medications/580591/) * Factors Leading to Prolonged Deaths in Aid-in-Dying (https://heyzine.com/flip-book/2ce721e795.html#page/1) Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

11. 

    18 Feb 2025

    'MPs didn't know what they were signing up to. Now they have to lose face'. Assisted Episode 6

    This is our third discussion with the experts who can tell us how Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying panned out. Tonight we speak with two doctors who know more about MAID than they ever would have dreamed. Chelsea and Fiona welcome: Dr Ramona Coelho, a family physician in London, Ontario. She is also a member of the Ontario Chief Coroner’s MAID Death Review Committee, and so is one of the few people to see the data on the true outcomes of MAID. Professor Leonie Herx, a palliative care doctor, clinical professor at the University of Calgary, and recent president of the Canadian Palliative Care Association. Each has seen how MAID unfolded and how it affects the practice of medicine, attitudes to suffering and dying, and most importantly, their patients. They tell stories that lay out the human costs of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying. Assisted death and women is funded only by your generosity. Please subscribe to hear each episode as it arrives. Leonie and Ramona discuss: * That Canadians were told assisted dying would only be for exceptional cases * How safeguards quickly become barriers * How the MAID ‘providers’ interpreted the law so that even more people could die: including Ellen Wiebe’s use of actuarial tables to estimate life expectancy of her patients and justify their access to death. (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/assisted-dying-law-canada-moro-1.4294809) * The lobbying efforts of Canada’s well funded Dying with Dignity organisation also covered in “The Lobby Group That Owns the Conversation around Assisted Deaths (https://thewalrus.ca/dying-with-dignity-lobby/)” * That it’s not true to say that MAID has seen an increase in quality and resourcing of palliative care: in fact some palliative care budgets now deliver MAID * Instead of suicide prevention, patients will be sent away with a MAID phone number * That it may take months or years for their patients to get disability support, but a MAID assessment is available in 3 days * Ramona’s work with the Ontario Chief Coroner MAID Death Review Board: reports here (https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3518/2024.3_NRFND_Vulnerability_Final_Report_%281%29.pdf) * The shocking rise in widows seeking an assisted death * How coercion and domestic abuse emerges over months of time with a patient: compared to the 90 minutes MAID assessors will spend over the phone with them Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

12. 

    14 Feb 2025

    Every day they have to wake up and say "should I let the government end my life?"

    Today we continue to hear from experts on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, which seems to have spiralled beyond anyone’s worst imaginings. Tonight, we have three powerhouse legal academics: feminists who work to limit the terrible excesses of Canada’s MAID. Fiona and Chelsea were so pleased to speak with: Professor Emerita Elizabeth Sheehy, latterly professor of criminal law at the University of Ottowa Professor Isabel Grant, specialist in criminal law at the Peter Allard School of Law at the University of BC, Professor Janine Benedet, who explores legal responses to men’s sexual violence against women at Peter A. Allard School of Law at University of BC. These women are truly fabulous: clear talking, clear thinking, and absolutely on the side of women. They also do most of their work on MAID unfunded. Their recent discussion and paper says that MAID is “a modern form of eugenics” (https://biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2023/03/20/video-and-audio-recording-of-feminism-ableism-and-maid-peter-a-allard-school-of-law-ubc-mar-13-2023/). In this wideranging discussion we learn: * How MAID’s wild expansion was won through campaigning and courts: but ultimately the Canadian parliament decided to pursue each major expansion in the law. * Those who deliver death have expanded the law even further in practice. * The role of (male) mercy killers (of women) in the campaign for assisted death, * What safeguards against coercion are * That we won’t know about men who pressure family members into MAID unless someone speaks out. * How death has become part of the menu of options proposed - pushed - to vulnerable people seeking healthcare. Even psychiatric care. * The silence of the feminist organisations as MAID unfurled its horrors * the weird funders of death including an airport authority Up next: the family doctor who investigates MAID and the palliative care expert Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

13. 

    14 Feb 2025

    "My mom said many times that she felt a burden" Assisted Episode 4

    We hear again and again that the UK’s assisted dying will never be like Canada - we’re nothing like Canada! The headlines on Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) are pretty alarming. But to some surprise, the MPs considering assisted dying at Westminster didn’t ask any experts from Canada to give evidence. We want to know what those experts would have said, so we’re kicking off a short series of discussions with Canadian families, legal experts, and medics, to understand what on earth went wrong in Canada’s MAID, and whether the UK can avoid ever becoming ‘like Canada’. First, we are immensely grateful for time with Alicia Duncan. With her sister Christie, she has been flung into a campaigning role that frankly no one would choose for themselves. Their mother Donna Duncan, an educated, fiercely independent woman, was given MAID in 2021. But Donna didn’t have a terminal illness, in fact she’d been suffering mental health issues since a minor car crash left her with post concussion syndrome. Her daughters faced a fierce fight to try to prevent their mother’s death. Appallingly, they did not succeed, and Donna was given MAID only hours after release from psychiatric hold. We think you’ll agree after this discussion that Alicia and her sister Christie are a credit to their mother. We cover the unfurling of Canada’s MAID, why we don’t hear about abuses in MAID (except for a few brave family members), what happens when the state kills someone it shouldn’t have, and Alicia’s asks of MPs in the UK. Alicia Duncan will have a book out later this year. You can read her evidence to the Westminster Parliament considering Assisted Death here (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmpublic/TerminallyIllAdults/memo/TIAB220.htm), get her newsletter (https://www.aliciaduncan.com/), find her on substack (https://aliciaduncan.substack.com/) and twitter/X (https://x.com/aliciaduncan_xo) Canada’s MAID, some of the headlines mentioned in this discussion: Woman undergoing a masectomy offered assistance to die (https://nationalpost.com/news/medical-assistance-in-dying-nova-scotia), twice Man given assisted death due to his hearing loss (https://nationalpost.com/news/experts-see-canadas-euthanasia-laws-as-threat-to-disabled) Minors should be eligible for assisted dying, parliamentary committee says (https://globalnews.ca/news/9491605/maid-minors-canada-medically-assisted-dying-committee-report/) Next up on Assisted: Canada’s law and the professors who battle it Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

14. 

    6 Feb 2025

    'This is not how you legislate' Assisted Death and Women Episode 3

    This is an incredible conversation. Every MP in Westminster needs to hear this - as Nikki says “I don’t know” the answer to all the questions “but importantly, I know I don’t know”. Westminster is considering assisted dying laws, put forward as a Private Member’s Bill. Formerly at No10 to make sure laws passed work well, Nikki Da Costa tells us why she has joined the fight. Nikki answers all our questions, like: is this the normal way to legislate for a major change like this? Will MPs get the time they need to consider how the law works in practice?. Does the bill cover all the issues raised by witnesses and written evidence? (tldr, no). Nikki shares some shocking findings in the dump of written evidence, which MPs have only days to consider. Reveals the unbelievable powers given to future ministers. And has a plea for MPs who need to vote on this next. This podcast has no big money funding. We’d love your support, and please subscribe to keep hearing from our incredible guests on this enormously important issue Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

15. 

    2 Feb 2025

    'A distraction from a new mode of dying'

    As mentioned last episode of the podcast, Chelsea Roff gave evidence at the Terminally Ill Adults (Assisted Dying) Bill committee this week. As Chelsea told them, the Committee MPs clearly do not want women with anorexia to be given assisted dying in the proposed bill. But Chelsea Roff and Dr Catherine Cook Cottone’s research shows that they DO, already, in 3 US states which follow the US/Australia model for assisted dying that the Westminster draft bill is based on. After Chelsea’s evidence, a series of experts were then invited to opine and said that it was not possible for those with anorexia to be able to access assisted death (somewhat baffling, as it is already happening in the US, and more widely in other places where the law has been expanded beyond ‘terminal illness’ requirements). That’s why it’s worth appreciating Dr Naomi Richard’s honesty in admitting that people with anorexia have already died from assisted deaths in the US, but that it is only “1 or 2” and in her view that this is a distraction from the delivery of a “new mode of dying”. Our tolerance for this number is very different: it’s zero, forever. But what will MPs on the bill committee decide? Is zero possible if doctors in the UK already say women are ‘terminal’ in their anorexia? If not zero, how many? So, did MPs really hear what they needed to prevent women with anorexia being given assisted death in England and Wales. Did any minds change? Lets see what the coming weeks bring. Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

16. 

    31 Jan 2025

    Assisted Death and Women Ep 2: A Story of Control

    In Westminster this week MPs heard from a series of invited witnesses that - in their opinion - there was no risk of women with anorexia being given assisted death. But we know different. At least 60 people have been given assisted death where an eating disorder is their primary qualifying condition. That includes in 3 states in the US where assisted death is only for the ‘terminally ill’. Oh and all those who died were women. The reason we know any of this is because of two women, working on a unfunded review to try to find the (hidden) stories. Chelsea Roff is joined by her co author Dr Catherine Cook Cottone to discuss their truly shocking findings with Fiona Mackenzie. * Link to their groundbreaking research Assisted death in eating disorders: a systematic review of cases and clinical rationales (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11322357/) * The paper we discuss that proposed a new diagnosis of terminal anorexia, with the stories of three patients who had already died, is here (https://jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-022-00548-3) And boy do you need to see what’s been happening in parliament this week. More to follow - click subscribe to hear. Assisted Death and Women is funded solely by your generosity - please consider subscribing Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

17. 

    23 Jan 2025

    "All of the cases we identified were women" Assisted Podcast Ep 1

    The UK is considering proposals for assisted death, with a Private Member’s Bill sponsored by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater now pushing through Westminster. But we think assisted dying presents specific problems for women, and this movement is not just ‘the next progressive big thing’. Join The Other Half (https://theotherhalf.uk/)’s Fiona Mackenzie MBE and eating disorder recovery expert Chelsea Roff of Eat Breathe Thrive (https://www.eatbreathethrive.org/) as we respond to the urgent need to discuss what state-delivered death might do to our society. This podcast is free - sign up for updates and please consider contributing if you can: Fiona and Chelsea are strangers, and both felt sympathetic to the arguments that assisted dying should be allowed for those who want it. The realities of assisted dying ‘gone wrong’ have challenged our views. In upcoming episodes we speak to the Canadian’s battling monstrous outcomes in their out of control MAID system, understand how eating disorder patients have been terribly failed by their doctors, dive into the (astonishing) history of the assisted death movement, learn more from experts here in the UK on what assisted dying might do here, and hear how a wife murderer got himself sympathetically featured in our UK parliament’s debate on assisted dying for the terminally ill. As Chelsea says “We hope you’ll come on this journey with us. My mind has changed on this issue, and it may change again. We have a duty as citizens to go into this with our eyes open”. Get full access to The Other Half at otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe (https://otherhalforg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Podcast Authority Score: 5 / 100

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10

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Contact Assisted: Death and Women

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