The assisted dying Bill could have “enhanced protections” added regarding assessments of mental capacity, Parliament heard during the final debate on the legislation this year.

Labour peer Lord Falconer of Thornton, who is leading the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill through the House of Lords, told peers that those who are “particularly vulnerable” should have an “enhanced level of assessment”.

This came after it was suggested that anyone who has been deprived of their liberty under the Mental Capacity Act (2005) in the last year should be ineligible for an assisted death.

Former president of the British Medical Association , Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, argued that an impairment of capacity serious enough to result in a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) application

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