Open letter to all MPs ahead of the Assisted Dying Bill Debate

’Although the Bill says mental illness alone is not a qualifying condition for assisted death, the physical effects of eating disorders can blur the lines,’ says Hope Virgo 

We are patients, survivors, carers, health care professionals and campaigners, united by our painful journeys with eating disorders, standing side by side with clinicians and healthcare professionals.  We reach out to you with the raw truth of our lived experiences.

Our lives, those of our loved ones, and those we treat, hang in the balance - yet we find ourselves confronting a healthcare system that too often fails us all. A lack of funding, pervasive stigma, and dangerous treatment practices mean that people with eating disorders are unable to access services - or worse, are told every day that they are untreatable or undeserving of treatment because they are perceived as unmotivated.