[Right_to_die] Half of U K doctors help with an 'easy death'

[org.opn.lists.right-to-die at lists.opn.org]

The Daily Telegraph in London reported 19 May 07:-

Majority of GPs 'stop treating terminally ill'
By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent

More than half of [British]  GPs have withheld treatment from terminally 
ill patients knowing it could hasten death, a survey published yesterday 
suggested.

The study of more than 300 family doctors, by Pulse magazine, found that 
54 per cent had held back drugs such as antibiotics. Almost four out of 
five - 79 per cent - believe there are circumstances when such action is 
justified.

Thirty per cent of those surveyed thought physician-assisted suicide 
should be legalised and 42 per cent would be prepared to help a patient 
die if the law was changed.

Almost three in five of GPs questioned, 58 per cent, had given pain 
relief drugs which might hasten death, even if that was not the intended 
consequence. Three quarters said this could be justified.

Deborah Annetts, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: "This 
survey shows what we have long said - that doctors hold a range of views 
on assisted dying and that many support a change in the law.

"It shows that GPs are in touch with the views of the vast majority of 
their patients - 80 per cent of the public believe that a terminally ill 
person should have the option of an assisted death.

"Given the range of views held by doctors on this issue, it is a shame 
the organisations that are supposed to represent them are failing to do 
so, and on an issue of such great importance to the public."

In the past 18 months, the British Medical Association and the Royal 
Colleges of Physicians and of GPs have all changed their position on 
euthanasia from neutrality to opposition.

A spokesman for the BMA said: "This is a very sensitive issue and 
doctors have varying views on it. Our position is we are opposed to 
physician-assisted suicide. At the moment, the majority of doctors are 
opposed.

"There is a very clear moral and legal distinction between knowing that 
a treatment may cause harm and deliberately intending to kill a patient.

"If a doctor's intention is to relieve pain and distress they will not 
have broken the law."

The results suggested that younger GPs were more supportive of assisted 
suicide than colleagues over 65, although the number of older doctors 
surveyed was small.

Dr Peter Jolliffe, the chief executive of Devon local medical committee, 
which represents GPs and GP practices, said: "My personal view would be 
there are times in life where suicide is a perfectly logical, sensible 
and understandable thing to do.

"If society is going to go down that route I don't see that it would 
have to be a doctor who administered the pill or gave the injection - I 
would find it difficult to do so."

Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director of the Care Not Killing Alliance, 
said: "It is quite appropriate to withhold treatment such as antibiotics 
when death is imminent and inevitable and when the burden of giving them 
outweighs any benefit.

"There is a huge difference between withholding treatment with the 
intention of hastening death, which is unethical, and withholding 
treatment in the knowledge that death may be hastened.

"The Pulse survey reflects the fact that many GPs mistakenly believe 
that you can't kill the pain without killing the patient. Morphine, 
properly used, does not hasten death."