The Royal College of Physicians will soon begin yet another consultation with its members on the subject of ‘assisted dying’. The college is opposed to legalisation, but a minority are unhappy with this. They know there is no chance of persuading a majority to support such practices. So they are pressing for the college to declare itself neutral. Whether the law should be changed, they say, is a matter for society rather than for the medical profession.
In one sense they are right. Whether the law should be changed to permit people to be supplied with lethal drugs to take their own lives is a social rather than a medical matter. Official reports from Oregon in the United States, where assisted dying is legal, show that the main reasons why terminally ill people seek lethal drugs are often personal or social rather than clinical. They include not being able to enjoy life as before, wanting to decide the time of their death and – more worryingly – feeling that they are a burden on others.
But the question surely arises: in that case, why should assisted suicide (which is what ‘assisted dying’ is in law) be doctor-assisted suicide? The question is all the more pertinent as the majority of British doctors, and particularly those of us who specialise in treating terminally ill patients, are opposed to such legislation.
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