Someone can go through the process without their next of kin, family, and even GP being informed of it. Situations where some family members knew but others did not are bound to lead to acrimony but even more seriously this means that those who might be able to present evidence of coercion or pressure by others have no possibility of doing so.
The Bill would allow someone to apply for assisted suicide effectively secretly. The patient is advised to inform their GP (clause 9(e)) and the doctor, if they consider it appropriate, advises them to “consider” discussing it with their next of kin or “other persons they are close to”.
This is an explicit choice to restrict the amount of publicity that a request for assisted dying involves, probably because many of the more determined individuals who wish to change the law do not feel that it is anyone’s business but their own whether or not they seek an assisted suicide and therefore feel they should not be required to involve their families.
However, this secrecy is very dangerous. If there is any desire for potential coercion or pressure to come to light, the system would need to be public: writing, probably at least a month beforehand, to not just the household but to a wide range of the patient’s social circle. This sounds intrusive but expecting coercion or pressure to come to light without publicity is extraordinarily naïve.
In other countries tragic cases have emerged where close family members say that they had no idea that their relative was seeking euthanasia until they were told to collect the body. This Bill almost guarantees such cases will arise in the UK.
Given that the reasons for wanting to die are left entirely at large and therefore could include, for example, a fear that family support would not be forthcoming, or even loneliness, the fact that relatives and friends are not informed means that help that might have been available to make the patient feel able to cope with the last period of their life, would not be found.
While (see “Delegated Powers” in Part 2 of this memorandum) a huge amount of the practical detail in this regime has been left to ministers to draft by way of regulations, or to Rules of Court, the fact that the primary legislation makes such an explicit choice against informing relatives of a request for assisted suicide would make it hard for a minister to contradict that choice by requiring wider publication by way of regulations. Moreover, the tight information control and privacy regime currently applicable to medical information would make it very hard for any such request to be publicised by the doctors.