we re were alive months or weeks and who were alive months or years later. i had the situation with my own mother. so the assessment process is something which needs to be addressed and is not being addressed here at all but i would like to hand over to doctor randall if i may.— i would like to hand over to doctor randall if i may. randall ifi may. yes, thank you. to ick u- a randall ifi may. yes, thank you. to pick up a few— randall ifi may. yes, thank you. to pick up a few specific _ randall ifi may. yes, thank you. to pick up a few specific points - randall ifi may. yes, thank you. to pick up a few specific points from i pick up a few specific points from clause six, it strikes me that there is a very scanty requirements placed on the attending doctor. as far as i can work out the only restriction there is of their medically qualified and not related to the patient. there is nothing said about seniority or suitable qualification the attending doctor. that is of great concern. i can remember making terrible mistakes when i was a house officer and i was a house officer in the days of the liverpool care pathway. i remember of my own volition placing a patient on the liverpool care pathway which i thought was the right thing to do,

stopping all medications and all oralfeeding and fluids stopping all medications and all oral feeding and fluids and a patient lived for several more days and clearly was not dying. and then over a week later we reversed that decision and i look back with shame and horror at what i did there. i was doing with the best of intentions but i was very inexperienced. i was contacted by a doctor in new zealand who said they have had issues with house officers doing this in new zealand against the wishes of more senior doctors because they think this is the right thing for the patient. no one is doubting the sincerity but currently you have no requirements on the attending doctor to be suitably qualified. i have concerns about how much air is left to secondary legislation so all the qualifications of the independent doctors to be defined by secondary legislation which takes that outside the democratic process. i have

concerns that this is less tight than the mental capacity act. the mental capacity act stipulates clearly the training of the people required to deprive liberty to somebody with a mental illness. this is less tight there. i am concerned that you have the risk that a special psychiatrist opinion can be overruled here and that seems to me quite irregularfrom my experience of medicine. i would never say that a patient had a capacity of the psychiatrist said they did not. but i think if we move away from the specific issues, what happens if the patient mentions to their gp they would like to access assisted suicide and the gp is not willing and no other gp is in the practice willing? you may well experience this. who would then become the attending doctor? it would have to be doctor who doesn't know the patient, comes in, assist the

patient, comes in, assist the patient as best they can but you will be losing out on the experience of those gps who treated the patient for many years, and also very welcome and as a family situation so i have concerned their and then finally, sorry to speak so long but finally, sorry to speak so long but finally, i would just draw your attention to quite a number of public inquiries in the uk about how the culture of medicine can shift. i have printed out a summary of the francis report into the abuses at the mid staffs hospital. i have the independent reports from 2018 when people take to the balance of pop—up and ford delay my elderly patients and ford delay my elderly patients and i have more careless pathway report into liverpool care pathway. in each of those reports, the same message comes that you can get institutions where the culture shifts and patients not treated with

dignity and respect, the value of individual patients is not respected and that is the concern when you haveit and that is the concern when you have it embedded in health care and i would really strongly recommend as baroness finlay has suggested that this needs to be removed. mr glover. certainly alarm _ this needs to be removed. mr glover. certainly alarm bells _ this needs to be removed. mr glover. certainly alarm bells have _ this needs to be removed. mr glover. certainly alarm bells have been - certainly alarm bells have been wrong from your opening remarks where you compare this legislation to be more akin to canada, which is something i think the movers have avoided having that comparison so maybe you could clarion that alarm bell a little bit more and also how do you handle it when people tell you that they want to end their life? ., ~ ,, you that they want to end their life? ., ~ i. ., ., .,, life? thank you. to deal with those two things- — life? thank you. to deal with those two things- the _ life? thank you. to deal with those two things- the canadian _ life? thank you. to deal with those two things- the canadian law- life? thank you. to deal with those two things- the canadian law was l two things— the canadian law was moved with the best of intentions

and people are sure that it was all being done in a careful and control way but the problem came that this was established as a health care intervention... coughing drowns 0ut speech. what happened was after two or three years equalities and cases were brought four people were saying why is this person allow this and i'm not? and if yourjustification is based on compassion, then why is it limited only to people with a six or 12 month prognosis? why should that not be applicable across the board? and that was the reason why through the courts legislators in canada were forced to change this legislation. i think you run the risk of doing the same thing here. to do with your second question, i am sure baroness finlay would have lots of examples. i have been asked

once by patient and their life and that's interesting and i will tell you later why that was but to tell you later why that was but to tell you that one patient, it was a fit, relatively elderly man, who are coming and we diagnosed an aggressive malignancy and was clear that they weren't going to be good treatment options and i have been there in the ward and he called me back again and said what's the point? can you just bump me off? i smiled conspiratorially and explain we couldn't do that and i said was making you feel that way? we had a discussion. for him, it was that if he's going to die a few weeks why not now? is there any point? we talked about his fear of symptoms, we talked about where he would like to be treated and we explored the next few weeks might look like. and then had a much broader conversation about where he lived, but his family

members, we both like boats and we talked about sailing and it only took ten or 15 minutes but by the end of that we were in a completely different place and he was viewing his next few weeks of life in a totally different way. and actually, we didn't start a dialysis which i would have done if he did not catch because that wasn't something he wanted. we are not in the business of pushing back death as far as we possibly can, this was coming naturally and he had a natural death and in a dignified way with very good symptom support because we were able to plug into hospice services and it reminded me of how important it is to care for the patient and notjust respond to that request and if i had said to him, yes, we have a procedure for that, here is a form and let me get an independent doctor in, we would have lost that opportunity and would treated that man so optimally in my view. —— wouldn't have... i

man so optimally in my view. -- wouldn't have. . ._ man so optimally in my view. -- wouldn't have... i have had a lot of atients wouldn't have... i have had a lot of patients who _ wouldn't have... i have had a lot of patients who have _ wouldn't have... i have had a lot of patients who have said _ wouldn't have... i have had a lot of patients who have said to - wouldn't have... i have had a lot of patients who have said to me - wouldn't have... i have had a lot of patients who have said to me give l wouldn't have... i have had a lot of i patients who have said to me give me something to end it, i can't go on. and the straightforward response is to ask them why they feel that. what is making today so terrible? what is it that they want to do that they feel they're not going to do? are you i had the situation within my mother, she was in a hospice expected to die with in probably six weeks and according to the medical director, and she was very angry with me and i was opposing euthanasia at the time. and we eventually took her home. she lived forfour eventually took her home. she lived for four years and then made a bbc radio programme with radio wales about how fantastic it was come with four years in which she saw her two great grandsons born and how her quality of life was unbelievably different. early on, relatively

early on in my career, 20 years ago, i had a patient referred to me by a gp who said the only reason i'm referring him as i cannot give him a lethal injection. he is the most clear—cut case for euthanasia i have ever come across. his surgeon and oncologist in gp and i all thought he had a prognosis of three months at most. he came into the hospice, was not easy to look after, he took a great deal of work, 11 years later his wife died, leaving him as a single parent of three relatively small children, the youngest of whom by then was 11. because that youngest one had been a baby when i first saw him. srumo: - first saw him. srumo: you - first saw him. ...l studio: you been first saw him. _ studio: you been watching first saw him. studio: you been watching the debate in parliament in the isle of man which could bring assisted dying a step closer with those terminally ill. politicians are debating whether legal drugs should be given ijy whether legal drugs should be given by doctors are self—administered and

this is a pivotal stage of the legislation as politicians vote on the details of who would be eligible. the bill allows for the provision of assisted dying for terminally ill adults with capacity and mental capacity. we havejust heard from a number of the experts. baroness finlay, an expert in palliative medicine and doctor david randall, an oncologist from the royal london hospital. baroness finlay said of the bill as it was written is not workable and she was concerned about how the assessments were done. doctor randall said that any change in law would create winners and losers and he also said he didn't see the planned law as being a safe piece of legislation. we will have more from that debate throughout the day here on bbc news. coming up next, ben brown is here with bbc news now but first let's get a check on the weather with carol. hello again. it's been a wet start to the day

for some of us today. we've got a band of rain which is slowly pushing northwards and eastwards. to the north of it, some brighter skies. to the south of it, some brighter skies. but we're also looking at some showers which are likely to be blustery. low pressure is driving our weather for the next few days. here it is here. this is the weather front moving north and east. if we follow it round, it's producing some showers, wrapped around the area of low pressure itself in the south—west. so you can see the progress that the weather front is making. now, to the north in scotland, there will be some cloud at times, but there'll be some sunny spells as well. the rain clearing northern ireland, and for northern ireland, wales and south—west england, into the midlands, it's a mixture of bright spells, sunshine and also some showers. 21, 22 degrees being the top temperature around the moray firth today. widely, we're looking at up to 19, but cooler on the north sea coastline. here's our weather front tonight. increasingly turning light and patchy, the rain on it. but it will rejuvenate in its southern end by the end of the night. and once again, a lot of low cloud mist and murk coming in from the north sea. but it's not going to be a cold night. temperatures staying in double

figures and the winds easing. so we start the day with our weather front producing cloud and also some rain from the south—east into the south of scotland. now, through the day, this low cloud, mist and murk on the north sea coastline will drift inland. so once again, it's the north of scotland favoured for the lion's share of the sunshine. but there will be sunny spells in northern ireland, wales, into the midlands and southern england and here we're likely to see one or two showers, but temperatures up to 23 degrees. a wee bit fresher on the north sea coastline. into thursday, variable amounts of cloud, some showers. if anything, through the course of the day, the showers developing a wee bit more widely. some dry weather across southern areas and our temperatures ranging from 13 to about 20 degrees. north—west scotland could well see 22 degrees during the course of thursday. beyond that, for friday and into the weekend, our area of low pressure pushes further east. we've got a ridge of high pressure across the northern half of the country,

so that will tend to settle things down. so in summary, for the south, we are looking at sunshine and showers, whereas in the north it's looking like it will be that bit drier, but temperatures still a bit above average.

live from london. this is bbc news. america's top diplomat

is on a surprise visit to kyiv and promises a new package of us weapons will make a difference to ukraine's hard—pressed troops. judges rule the sentence handed down to the nottingham killer valdo calocane was not "unduly lenient". tension around the parliament in georgia where mps are set to pass a controversial law that critics say will silence dissent. and it's been called a medical game changer — a new study suggests widely used weight loss drugs could cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes. hello, i'm ben brown, welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction.