The Isle of Man Medical Society wants clear answers on how assisted dying will work in practice. Government preparations for the service are now under way after the island’s new law received Royal Assent on 20 October.
Dr Martin Rankin, who is stepping down as the society’s president, told Manx Radio that a great deal remains unknown. The broadcaster reported that 74% of doctors who responded to a survey of the society’s membership are against assisted dying.
Four areas of concern
Manx Radio reported that the society’s worries fall under four main headings:
- Vulnerable people: the danger that groups including older people, disabled people and people with mental health conditions could be pressured.
- Regulation: how the service will be overseen, which medicines will be prescribed and how doctors will be safeguarded.
- Core services: the society said it has told Manx Care that introducing assisted dying risks undermining the island’s vital health and social care provision.
- Conscientious objection: guarantees for doctors who choose not to be involved in assisted deaths.
Dr Vanina Finnochi, who has just been elected to succeed Dr Rankin, told Manx Radio that island doctors have not been consulted enough and that many of them are uneasy about the process.
What happens next
3FM reported that responsibility for designing the service now falls to the health department. The framework it prepares will set out staff training, how medicines are to be handled safely and what safeguards are to be in place.
The station said the service cannot begin until sections of the Capacity Act take effect, which is presently expected by April 2028. According to 3FM, no launch date has been fixed, and assisted dying will only become available once clinical, practical and safeguarding arrangements are complete.
Under the law, Manx Radio reported, adults who are terminally ill and not expected to survive more than 12 months will be able to ask for an assisted death, as long as they have lived on the island for five years or more. They must also be on the list of an island GP, and two doctors acting independently must agree that the person has the capacity to make the choice.
A long road to law
The bill was introduced by Dr Alex Allinson, who was then MHK for Ramsey. BBC News reported that it cleared both the House of Keys and the Legislative Council in March 2025, yet Royal Assent did not follow until 20 October 2026. Dr Allinson raised the hold-up in a letter to the UK Lord Chancellor in February this year.
The BBC said public opinion on the principle had been split almost down the middle in an earlier consultation. Results released in April 2023 showed 49.61% of responses opposed the idea, while 49.01% supported it.
Supporters of the change have welcomed the outcome. Sue Biggerstaff, whose husband Simon died in 2022 having lived with motor neurone disease, told Manx Radio that campaigning had been tough and that going back over his death in interviews had been deeply painful. She added: “It was well worth it to get where we are.”
Dignity in Dying called Royal Assent a historic moment for the island. Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said people on the island with a terminal illness would shortly be able to choose how their life ends “under strict safeguards”.
