VSED - Stopping Eating & Drinking at the End of Life: Lawful, Ethical, and Sometimes Best

Over at the Journal of Medical Ethics Forum Marco Annoni offers a powerful defense of the new BMA Guidance on VSED.  

But he rightly concedes: "One point warrants genuine concern. The guidance notes that the law requires no illness or terminal prognosis to elect to VSED." 

This point was leveraged against me when I defended (and here) the VSED bridge to MAID. The counterargument goes: 

• Anyone can qualify for VSED.
• VSED can qualify anyone for MAID.
• Therefore, anyone can qualify for MAID. 

In fact, that second premise is false. For MAID, the patient typically needs an irreversible and incurable illness. VSED only changes the timeline to death. Dementia is the prime but not only example.

The first premise is also false. The law does not specifically prohibit someone lacking a serious illness from VSED (as it does for MAID). But professionals who support patients who VSED (e.g., death doulas, hospices, palliative care professionals) typically demand that such that it has become a binding standard of care.