18/11/2025
Today, we are joining with experts, organisations, and families across the UK in signing an open letter calling for urgent action to prevent people with eating disorders from ending their lives under the Assisted Dying Bill.
People with eating disorders are already dying while waiting for treatment. Many are young, with decades of life ahead of them. Their families are left devastated and searching for answers that should never have been needed.
Clinicians and services are under enormous strain, and we still do not have reliable national data on how many people with eating disorders are dying. We are calling on government to record these deaths consistently and invest in the research and specialist services needed to prevent them.
Evidence from abroad shows what is at stake. At least sixty people with eating disorders have ended their lives under assisted dying laws in other countries. All were women, and a third were under thirty. With timely treatment and sustained support, many of these deaths might have been prevented.
The UK has an opportunity to learn from this. If assisted death becomes available in a system where access to treatment is already limited, people who are overwhelmed and unwell may request to end their lives at points when they urgently need help to live.
People with eating disorders deserve treatment that helps them stay alive and gives them a chance to recover.
⚖️ Tell the House of Lords: people with eating disorders need support to live, not assistance to die.
→ [https://tinyurl.com/mu9u6nfj / Link in bio]
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