katherinesleeman.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Devastating must-read article by Hadley Freeman on MPs not getting ‘too hung up on anorexia’ in the context of assisted dying / assisted suicide. www.thetimes.com/article/eeda...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

If you are reeling from Trump & Vance's disgusting performance towards Zelensky last night, might you consider donating to www.hospiceukraine.com, the tiny charity I set up with Henry Marsh to support local Ukrainian palliative care teams? We delivered this Land Rover to a rural hospice in Dec...

submitted 2 days ago • 36 comments

V good article from Simon Etkind and colleagues on why we need to consider frailty in the assisted dying / suicide debate academic.oup.com/ageing/artic...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

It is shocking indeed. Palliative care can alleviate a wish for hastened death.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

The amendment states that the panel doesn’t have to meet the patient. Not even online. So how exactly is the psychiatrist going to verify capacity? And how exactly is the social worker going to verify absence of coercion? Are the 50 signatories aware of this?

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Four good letters the Guardian but imo the most important is by Prof Allan House whose expertise (alongside other psychiatrists) seems to have been ignored because it was inconvenient. What does this say about the commitment of the bill’s proponents to safety? t.co/q7DRJjSDpe

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

This is brilliantly helpful. 5 myths about mental capacity (relevant to the TIA / assisted dying bill) from Prof Alex Ruck Keene KC www.mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk/mental-capac...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

🧵/ I agonised over whether to write this Sunday Times piece. Whipped-up emotion, hate & vitriol now dominate discussions of assisted dying on here - appallingly. We have to be able to converse in good faith - & concerns should not be dismissed as "noise". (1/n) www.thetimes.com/article/5188...

submitted 15 days ago • 10 comments

Pro-assisted dying MPs are approaching their bill in a hyperpartisan way, treating expert concerns that vulnerable people will be subjected to wrongful state-sanctioned deaths dismissively. The buck for that stops with Keir Starmer. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

Rachel Clarke, @doctoroxford.bsky.social, who gave evidence to the assisted dying bill committee, writes about that experience and how the new “Judge Plus” proposal is nothing near an MDT. www.thetimes.com/article/5188...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Life goal 👇

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

Important review on domestic abuse in the context of life limiting illness. Relevant to assisted dying debate. Summary below. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/...

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

KL has misunderstood the point about the need for multidisciplinary assessment. This needs to happen at the start, replacing the single doctors working alone. Tacking on a panel at the end achieves zero. How will the psychiatrist assess capacity without the patient present?!

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

“Regardless of where one stands on the debate, this is a shameful, skewed and bungled way to examine a matter of life and death” The Times view on flaws in the process for Kim Leadbeater’s bill: Skewed Reasoning www.thetimes.com/article/2b05...

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Very good podcast with Nikki Da Costa on how laws are made, and why a Private Members Bill is so very unsuitable for legislation with massive consequences, such as on assisted dying. Highly recommended 👇👇👇 otherhalforg.substack.com/p/this-is-no...

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Join us on the 26th February for our CSI Open Seminar delivered by Professor Irene Higginson, King's College London The event is hosted both in-person and virtually via Microsoft Teams. Sign up for FREE here: buytickets.at/facultyofnur...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Our new Editorial in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care on inequity and inequality in palliative and end of life care, and smarter use of routine data to measure and monitor inequalities, and to inform decision-making. 👇👇👇

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

My letter in today’s Guardian on last weeks oral evidence sessions for the assisted dying bill - and how they left us with more questions than answers (including a big one)…

submitted 24 days ago • 6 comments

“There is a danger of some people allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good, and there will never be a perfect bill.” Begs the Q - How good is good enough? What margin of error is ok? We are told this is the safest AD law. But how safe is it? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Nowhere in the Terminally Ill Adults Bill does it say that someone needs to ask the person requesting assisted dying why they want to die. Would this not be a sensible … err … safeguard?

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

Very concerning - I’m hearing that evidence submitted to assisted dying committee weeks ago has not been published. If you submitted evidence please check if it is published: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3774/p... (scroll down, ‘written evidence’) If it is not contact [email protected] ASAP

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Important letter in today’s Times. 24 leading psychiatrists say assisted dying will harm suicide prevention. It was apparent last week that some committee members believe there’s a clear line between suicidality and a wish for hastened death. These psychiatrists disagree.

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

assisted dying, the problem with private members bills, and the need for independent evidence www.bmj.com/content/388/...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Assisted Dying: If the aim of the Committee stage is - as has been repeatedly claimed - to ensure that the UK ends up with the safest possible legislation, then how is the bias inherent in this witness list possibly conducive to that end?

submitted 29 days ago • 10 comments

The former Attorney General of Victoria: “The Victorian oversight and accountability structure can best be described as one of ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’” blogs.bmj.com/spcare/2025/...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Brilliant piece reflecting on the role of palliative care and societal coersion by Janice Turner in the Times today #assisteddying

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

Good article on the oral evidence sessions leaving us with more questions than answers. Will the NHS set up a National Death Service? www.thetimes.com/article/0b4e...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Dash for assisted dying ignores palliative care Good article by Janice Turner - in which she points out that palliative care is so underprioritised that NICE recommendations made more than a decade ago have still not been implemented. www.thetimes.com/article/f052...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

You did an AMAZING job Rachel!

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Listening to Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill oral evidence sessions. CMO has twice said of assessing capacity “if you ask 6/7 doctors you’ll get the same answer” This is absolutely not my experience.

submitted 34 days ago • 3 comments

The final episode of my Radio 4 series The Body Politic - on assisted dying - is at 11am this morning, and on BBC Sounds after. We step back to look at the case for assisted dying- and why there’s such strong opposition.

submitted 35 days ago • 2 comments

I think there’s a lot to be said for Ben Spencer’s proposal. In my view the 6 month rule is arbitrary and unworkable. But most important, it’s discriminatory. t.co/SSfCfag9qF

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Data from Dept Work and Pensions reveals 1 in 5 people given 6 months to live are still alive after three years. Not surprising to any clinician. But pretty relevant to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)* Bill *aka assisted dying @telegraphnews.bsky.social t.co/P7hdZyaV47

submitted 41 days ago • 1 comment