A recent op-ed in The Times shared the story of a young girl named Nikki, who died from starvation at just 17 years old. According to The Times, the hospital had been told it could not “override her wishes” to starve herself to death by anorexia, so doctors allowed her to die, feeling their hands were tied. To give her a feeding tube to save her life would have amounted to assault — because for Nikki, ‘death was preferable to eating.’
It’s the same pro-bodily autonomy argument that euthanasia and assisted suicide proponents rely on to convince lawmakers and their fellow citizens to support a person’s supposed right to commit suicide — and it’s currently being used to push through the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the United Kingdom (UK).
Nikki — and anyone who wishes to starve to death, overdose on pills, or die by lethal injection — could have the right to do so if the UK passes the bill. Pro-euthanasia groups call it “death with dignity,” though many have described it as messy, torturous, discriminatory, and heartless. Why would no one intervene to stop a 17-year-old girl from starving herself to death, when in another circumstance — if she were at the edge of a bridge, working up the nerve to jump to her death, for example — it is likely that someone would intervene?
If intervening in one situation is deemed heroic but in the other is deemed assault, there is clearly a problem of glorification surrounding the deaths of people with chronic physical and mental illnesses.
READ: Parents speak out about daughter with anorexia who died by euthanasia
“Anorexia is complicated: it’s a mental illness that leads to physical complications, which exacerbate the mental ones, and so on,” wrote Hadley Freeman, a friend of Nikki’s who met her at an eating disorders ward when they were just 15. “Even more complicated, the more ill a person becomes, the more they resist treatment (eating, in other words) and the more they want to die. Offering an anorexic assisted death is like offering her liposuction: her desire for it is a symptom of her illness.”
She explained, “Right-to-die campaigners love to talk about autonomy, but such terms are meaningless when it comes to women whose minds are crazed by starvation.”
Yet, people with anorexia are being labeled as “terminal” by the NHS system.
While individuals with mental illness don’t technically qualify for assisted death, at least not currently, Freeman rightly points out that anorexia — though it is a mental health issue — leads to physical health issues. Those physical health issues can then push a person over the qualification line and open the door to physician-assisted death.
“Some believe that the bill excludes those with mental illness. In fact, it excludes those who are terminally ill ‘only’ because of mental illness — anorexia can lead to physical problems, and these can qualify a person for assisted death,” wrote Freeman. “Others say only a tiny number of anorexia patients could qualify. But what number is acceptable? Anorexics are already gaining access to assisted death in Colorado, California and Oregon. One consultant said she could foresee a time when ’20 to 30 patients with anorexia access assisted dying in this country every year, because of the contagion effect.'”
A study published in 2024 revealed that at least 60 people had died by assisted suicide or euthanasia for eating disorders between 2021 and 2024, but experts believe the number is higher. That number could increase with the potential advent of a new diagnosis: terminal anorexia.
Chelsea Roff, who struggled with anorexia, said there is a trend toward labeling people with the condition as “medically futile” and allowing them to die under a warped view of “compassion.” It appears that this is what may have happened to Nikki years ago, and that such deaths are likely to increase.
Freeman argues that in the UK, the danger facing individuals with eating disorders is being swept under the rug. She quoted Dr. Simon Opher, Labour MP for Stroud, who said during a hearing for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, “It is very important that this committee doesn’t get too hung up on anorexia.”
“[I]t didn’t,” said Freeman. The committee voted against closing loopholes that would allow the government to kill people like Nikki in the name of misplaced “compassion.”
Bodily autonomy, while important, does not allow anyone the right to cause harm, even to oneself. Every human being, regardless of mental or physical health challenges, deserves the best health care available. And health care doesn’t kill and shouldn’t, even if the person in question wishes it.
