8mm
Posted on 07/20/2008 9:31:35 AM PDT by wagglebee
ONE in three doctors believes the law should be changed to allow euthanasia for the terminally ill.
A snapshot survey of doctors has found 35% in favour of assisted suicide compared to 60% against the controversial move. The remainder said they were unsure. The survey was carried out by Doctors.net.uk, an online discussion forum and professional network for medics which represents 95% of doctors in the UK.
Medics were asked: "In your opinion should legislation be changed to allow euthanasia?" A total of 58 said no, 34 said yes and five said they did not know.
The poll result suggests increasing support among doctors in favour of assisted suicide, a move many would inevitably become involved in if it were to be legalised, compared to just two years ago when the British Medical Association voted overwhelmingly against it.
It comes in the wake of the case of a Glasgow doctor who last week admitted prescribing a powerful sleeping tablet to allow patients to commit suicide.
GP Iain Kerr said he gave the 87-year-old woman the pills as an "insurance policy" after she expressed fears about how she would meet her end.
Kerr is being questioned by the General Medical Council over the matter and, although he told the hearing he believes it was his "duty" to consider a terminally ill patient's request for euthanasia, he faces being struck off the medical register if he is found to have acted inappropriately.
The poll also follows a call by independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, for Scotland to adopt Holland's liberal assisted suicide laws. Yesterday campaigners welcomed the poll results but critics warned that doctors should not assist patients to die prematurely, no matter how ill they are.
Under the Dutch system patients are allowed to end their own life if they have been under the supervision of a doctor for 18 months. An average of 2,000 people each year kill themselves in the country. Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK.
MacDonald said yesterday: "At the moment we have an uneasy situation where doctors do make the decision every day to give a palliative sedative knowing that it should bring life to a close. Doctors are doing that anyway. I don't see the difference in that and someone working with the patient and agreeing with them. Doctors have told me individually that they think it's an entirely sensible idea.
"I believe that most people would like to see no criminality if someone, out of concern and love, helped a patient or a loved one to bring their life to an end."
Dr Tim Ringrose, of Doctors.net.uk, said the results of the poll suggested many doctors felt there was a need to change the law. He added: "This is an interesting result because although the majority of doctors do not think the law should change, those who do form a significant minority. A lot of doctors, particularly GPs, feel they are in a catch-22 situation because if euthanasia was legalised they would be accused of influencing patients to do it. However some see the demand from patients to be given this choice."
But despite the apparent increased support for new legislation some doctors have expressed anxiety about the prospect of shouldering the ethical burden of assisting suicides.
One doctor, commenting anonymously on the online poll, said: "Euthanasia is a legal issue, not a medical one. The only involvement doctors should have is in making the original diagnosis, treating appropriately and perhaps giving an opinion on an individuals' mental capacity to make the decision to end their life."
Yesterday, Dr George Fernie, from the BMA's Scottish Council, said its official position remained the same. "Assisted suicide is illegal in this country," he said. "The primary goal of medicine is to promote welfare, protect the vulnerable and give all patients as good a quality of life as is possible."
The Rev Ian Galloway, convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council, also opposed any change in the law in favour of euthanasia because of the fear that it could leave some patients at risk.
He said: "We believe there are real dangers that many vulnerable people could be made more vulnerable as a result of such legislation."
This is what the practice of medicine has ALWAYS been about and there is no reason for it to change.
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The 34 that said yes to the survey should be out of a job.
That’s what I thought.
And are these the surgeons the reason the UK NHS has to offer survival bonuses, for NOT killing their patients?
Not much different than Hitler...get rid of the useless eaters.
My mom said pro-lifers said when abortion was legalized back in the 70s that euthanasia would be next. Of course liberals then denied that this would occur. The slope is sliding, and the liberals are proudly sliding along with it.
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