Chelsea Roff

People with eating disorders would qualify as terminally ill under this bill, as written. For those who want a quick summary of our research, here are the key points I did not have time to cover today. 🧵👇

The @UKHouseofLords is discussing safeguards for patients with anorexia & other eating disorders. @Tanni_GT says that since October 2024, the bill sponsors have deflected, obfuscated & ignored evidence from @rcpsych, @ChelseaRoff et al She cites an interview on @BBCNewsnight:

@nmdacosta I recall @vicderbyshire pressing Lord Falconer on this point, to which he responded unequivocally that eating disorder charities were mistaken in arguing that greater protections are needed for people with eating disorders.

For more than 15 months @ChelseaRoff and others have been raising the risk of this Bill to those with eating disorders. Supporters utterly deaf. Now some movement - on an amendment that only addresses anorexia - and they want a clap on the back! Deaf on this, deaf on what else?!

Beautifully written and very true 👇🏻. Learning cannot happen without accepting our limitations and maintaining curiosity.

Today I questioned the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on palliative care following a recent report which shows that care is in crisis. Whatever your view on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. I hope everyone agrees it should be safe. I’m concerned he couldn’t guarantee the bills safety or that people wouldn’t be compelled to take the decision to have an early death due to a lack of palliative care provision.

@Jess4Lowestoft @Teresa_PS @wesstreeting Congratulations, Jess! I can think of no better woman for the job 👏

I'm honoured to have been asked to advise @wesstreeting on how our health system can contribute to this Government's mission of halving violence against women and girls in a decade.

This list is pretty extraordinary. With all the new days in committee, announced today, will we see the Bill’s sponsor and proponents finally take these concerns seriously? Will they now consider, in good faith, the numerous amendments designed to improve safety?

Delighted that our paper addressing the false dichotomy between autonomy and preservation of life in anorexia nervosa has been accepted by the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. We hope that it will help patients, clinicians and lawyers to navigate difficult decisions.

@AgnesAyton @DrOliverLewis @rcpsychEDFac Excellent conference, and an honour to present with each of you. Grateful for all the work the college is doing to improve treatment and support for people with eating disorders and their families.

Very grateful to @DrOliverLewis @ChelseaRoff and Prof Eric van Furth to contribute to the @rcpsychEDFac conference discussion on ethical and legal issues - including assisted dying that can affect people with eating disorders.

@igrantubc Similar in Oregon, where “voluntarily stopping eating and drinking” has been promoted and used as a “bridge” for individuals who are not terminally ill to become eligible for assisted death through malnutrition and dehydration (which have been described as terminal diseases)

@ChelseaRoff The Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers promotes declining nutrition as a way to make death reasonably foreseeable so as to qualify someone for MAiD without any waiting period. Apparently even a settled intention to decline nutrition makes death foreseeable.

1 / If you want to understand why experts, charities, and families are so concerned about the #AssistedDyingBill, look at how anorexia has been handled throughout this debate. Here are four moments tell the story.

The question behind Pannick's remarks: if they can die by refusing treatment why can't they die by injecting themselves with barbituates? Hoffman LJ answered that question in the Bland case: because this would be contrary to the inviolability of life.

@treesey @itvnews Did Lord Falconer just concede there is an eating disorder loophole in his bill? Has anyone mentioned to him that anorexia is not the only eating disorder?

Why is @itvnews doing this? It’s obviously a planted story from lobbyists Dignity in Dying. The Rantzen family is not more important than our Parliament ‘Dame Esther Rantzen warns peers not to ‘sabotage democracy’ over assisted dying | ITV News’ itv.com/news/2025-11-2…

9/ TLDR: At least 60 people with eating disorders have died by assisted death worldwide. In the US, three states have confirmed deaths of people with anorexia but not disclosed how many, and eight others could not confirm or rule out whether such deaths had occurred. We cannot verify how many have died under “the Oregon model” because states use vague reporting categories, and two of the confirmed US deaths were reported in ways that did not identify anorexia at all.

8/ What about “severe protein calorie malnutrition”? Since our study was published, a further 43 assisted deaths where “severe protein calorie malnutrition” was listed as the primary qualifying terminal disease have been identified: 30 in Colorado and 13 in California. We cannot determine whether these cases were related to anorexia, VSED, or another condition from available data.

1/ How many people with eating disorders have died by assisted death under “the Oregon model”? There has been understandable confusion about the findings of our systematic review. For now, I will leave aside the problems with the term “Oregon model.” Here is what we know from the available evidence, with receipts.