CV NEWS FEED // A leading nonprofit organization dedicated to helping treat eating disorders is condemning recent diagnoses of anorexia nervosa as “terminal,” and warning that the term could be used to justify offering Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), or assisted suicide, to patients who suffer from it.
Responding to the classification dispute, the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) issued “an urgent call to action to stop the loss of lives due to eating disorders.”
“ANAD fears that this label could be used as a justification for providers to offer medical aid in dying and overlook the fact recovery remains possible even after decades of chronic illness,” the nonprofit stated.
The debate over the criteria for “terminal anorexia” has been ongoing, according to Hospice News.
Citing a research article from Psychiatric Times, the ANAD statement notes that clinicians often adopt inflexible approaches to treatment and may even refuse to treat patients who are unable to meet target weight goals or who continue to struggle with behaviors related to the disorder.
Allowing patients to progress at their own pace, rather than opening the door to assisted suicide, is “[t]he more humane approach,” the organization stated.
The research article further explains that patients who suffer from anorexia often experience “cognitive distortions,” or beliefs that are not based in facts, regarding their body image and high levels of ambivalence towards treatment. Examples of cognitive distortions include overgeneralization and jumping to conclusions, according to a PsychCentral article.
“The delusional level of cognitive distortions regarding food and body image is the irrational lens through which the decision to refuse treatment and to seek MAID is filtered,” the article stated:
Accordingly, the clinician who assumes that the patient has the capacity to consent to assisted suicide (rather than seeking further treatment) is not relieving the patient’s suffering, but is actually furthering and colluding with the disease itself.
For those with eating disorders, ANAD continued, “being labeled with a terminal illness has the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
In addition to calling for “increased flexibility in and opportunities for treatment” and “patient autonomy in goal-setting,” the nonprofit organization concluded that providers must continue “to believe in the possibility of future recovery, even when their patients cannot.”
“We must remain committed to holding hope and helping people find a life worth living,” the organization said.
>> Canadian Diocese Releases Catholic Response Against Assisted Suicide <<
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