This Supplementary Order Paper amends clause 8 of the End of Life Choice Bill to provide for a second expression of the person’s wish for assisted dying. This represents a modest “cooling off” period, recognising that a period of a week may see a material change in a person’s physical, mental, and emotional state, such that they do not wish to receive assisted dying as they would have when expressing their wish initially.

It is important that the law reflect the medical reality regarding the common phenomenon of depression resulting, often merely temporarily, from a diagnosis of terminal illness.

Without the law requiring that a person’s wish be re-expressed a week after initially having been expressed, they may make an irrevocable decision at a time that they are temporarily depressed specifically as a result of not having come to terms with a diagnosis, whether accurate or not, of terminal illness.