Actress Sophie Turner has expressed ‘deep concern’ about the assisted dying Bill and backed warnings over the ‘serious risk’ it poses to people with eating disorders.
The 29-year-old star, who rose to fame as Sansa Stark in Game Of Thrones, has signed a letter to Peers urging them to ‘pause’ the legislation to allow time to improve safeguards.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’s definition of terminally ill could see people with eating disorders ‘assessed as eligible for assisted death’, the letter warns.
Mother-of-two Ms Turner – who also starred in ITV‘s drama Joan – has previously spoken candidly about her own battle with an eating disorder and now campaigns to help others.
The actress has spoken about the effect that spending her teenage years on screen had on her mental health. She struggled with bulimia after she was told to lose weight while on Game of Thrones.
Ms Turner signed the letter alongside TV personality Gail Porter and Stephanie Waring, the former Hollyoaks actress. All three have been open about suffering from eating disorders.
They have joined mental health charities in warning that ‘in a health system already stretched beyond capacity, someone who is severely ill and ambivalent about treatment could be assessed as eligible for assisted death’.
The letter, sent on Tuesday, says: ‘We are writing to express deep concern about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill and the serious risk it poses to people with eating disorders.
The 29-year-old star, who rose to fame as Sansa Stark in Game Of Thrones, has signed a letter to Peers urging them to ‘pause’ the legislation to allow time to improve safeguards
Mother-of-two Ms Turner – who also starred in ITV ‘s drama Joan – has previously spoken candidly about her own battle with an eating disorder and now campaigns to help others
‘If passed, this bill could make individuals with eating disorders eligible for assisted death at times when they are unable to access or accept treatment.
‘Many young people who could recover with effective care might instead receive lethal medication during a period of despair.’
The open letter, coordinated by Eat Breathe Thrive and signed by mental health charity Mind, highlights sixty international examples of women with eating disorders being given assisted deaths under similar laws to the one proposed in Britain.
This includes Jessica, a 36-year-old from Colorado, who was prescribed lethal drugs after a doctor deemed her anorexia and depression to be incurable.
‘According to her family, she repeatedly said she did not want to die but could not continue living as she was,’ the letter says.
It adds: ‘We urge you to pause and ensure that legislation intended to bring compassion to those facing terminal illness does not end the lives of those who could still recover.’
The intervention comes as members of the House of Lords are set to continue line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill for the second of at least four committee sessions this Friday.
If it becomes law, it will allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and an ‘expert panel’.
