09.09.15
Senior doctors urge MP approval of Assisted Dying Bill
A group of 29 senior doctors and nurses are urging Parliament to approve Labour MP Rob Marris’s Assisted Dying Bill, which will be debated in the House of Commons on Friday (11 September).
In a letter published in the Guardian, the healthcare professionals – 27 doctors and two nurses – warned that the current law prohibiting assisted dying is “dangerous, cruel and in direct conflict with our duty to care for our patients”.
Friday’s debate will be the first time MPs have discussed changing the law directly since 1997.
They said: “Forcing people to travel abroad to die or to end their own lives in this country in distressing circumstances is not consistent with patient-centred care. We urge our patients to exercise choice throughout their lives, yet the law dictates that they are denied choice at a time when they want it most.
“An assisted dying law would not radically alter medical culture; it would instead provide much-needed safeguards to a practice that is already happening, unregulated and behind closed doors.”
They added that 87% of patients say a change in the law would increase or have no effect on their trust in doctors, but 49% of GPs are presently against being involved in the process (should the law be altered).
In November 2014, a survey by the Royal College of Physicians showed that almost 58% of 8,000 members said they opposed changing the law.
However the senior doctors emphasised that the BMA has never surveyed its members on the subject, so “opposition to assisted dying does not reflect the wide range of views held within the profession”.
Names amongst the signatories include Sir Muir Gray, chief knowledge officer of the NHS, and original organiser Jacky Davis, chair of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying.
A series of past presidents of the BMA, medical royal colleges, academies and faculties have also participated in writing the letter.
Earlier in September, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a letter with other faith leaders warning that a change in law would “cross a fundamental legal and ethical Rubicon”.
Welby stressed that it was not an attempt to “push the religious viewpoint” but came instead from a place of concern that assisted suicide could pose “detrimental effects on both individuals and on our society”.
Under the Bill, an application for assisted suicide could only be made to the High Court if it had clear consent from the dying person and signatures from two qualified medical practitioners.
Both doctors must be satisfied that the person is terminally ill, has the capacity to decide over their own life, and has a clear intention to proceed with suicide voluntarily. Patients must be informed of the palliative, hospice and other care available to them, and they must be referred to specialists if there is any doubt in relation to their decision-making capacity.