UK health workers launch campaign to change right-to-die laws Doctors, nurses and other health professionals who support assisted dying for the terminally ill are launching a campaign to change right-to-die laws. Healthcare Professionals for Change wants to see the 1961 Suicide Act changed so that terminally ill people can be legally assisted to die. Dr Ann McPherson, a GP and fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and of Green College, Oxford, who is dying of pancreatic cancer, will chair the group. “By taking a hostile approach to a change in the law on assisted dying, medical bodies such as the BMA (British Medical Association) and the Royal College of Physicians are failing to adequately reflect the views of all their members,” The Guardian quoted her as saying. “Many of us believe dying patients should not have to suffer against their wishes at the end of life. Alongside access to good quality end-of-life care, we believe that terminally ill, mentally competent patients should be able to choose an assisted death, subject to safeguards.” She said the fact that people cannot get assistance in the UK causes many of them to travel abroad or search the internet for ways of ending their lives. The British Social Attitudes Survey done this year showed that more than 80 percent of people support assisted dying, yet most major professional health bodies oppose changes which would allow medical experts to be involved. McPherson said that Healthcare Professionals for Change hopes to challenge the positions of the medical bodies and colleges of which they are members. The Royal College of Nursing dropped its official opposition to a change in the law last year. Sir Graeme Catto, former chairman of the General Medical Council and retired renal specialist, is not a member of the group but supports its views. The Guardian reported that he said: “I think every doctor who has treated terminally ill patients knows there are patients who would benefit from end of life sooner rather than later.” Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said the current law has resulted in many Britons travelling to clinics such as the one Dignitas runs in Switzerland. Care Not Killing alliance is opposed to assisted dying. The organisation’s director, Dr Peter Saunders, said he believes a change in the law would put pressure on vulnerable people who were afraid of being a burden to their families.
October 2nd, 2010