Doctors favour legalising assisted suicide for dying patients
http://www.100md.com
《英国医生杂志》
Just over half of British doctors questioned in a survey say they would welcome a law that allows them to help terminally ill people to end their life.
The survey, by the research organisation Medix UK, also found that 45% of the 1000 doctors questioned believe their colleagues are helping terminally ill patients to die. But as the law currently stands, their actions put them at risk of life imprisonment every time.
Over a quarter of the doctors surveyed (27%) said they had been asked by a patient for help to die.
Altogether, 56% of doctors said they were in favour of legislation to allow assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, provided there were stringent safeguards and national guidelines. Just under a quarter (21%) of doctors favoured a law against the practice and 22% were unsure how to respond to the issue.
However, when doctors were asked whether voluntary euthanasia should be permitted by law there was less support. Altogether 53% of respondents were against doctors directly helping patients die (rather than assisting in their suicide).
The results of the survey were released this week on the day that the BMA gave evidence to a specially convened House of Lords select committee on Lord Joffe抯 Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.
The BMA is against the bill, although both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners, which gave evidence last week, have dropped their opposition to it.
Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said: "This is an important survey. It puts beyond doubt the fact that the current law victimises both compassionate doctors and dying patients. Doctors are faced with the awful choice of either respecting the wishes of their terminally ill patients and helping them to die in the full knowledge that they could be prosecuted and face imprisonment, or abandoning their patient to yet more suffering at the end of life.
"It is time that we were open and honest about the need for the option of medically assisted dying at the end of life within proper safeguards. Only in this way will patients and doctors no longer be victims of this outdated and inhumane law."
Simon Kenwright, a consultant physician of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust who has cared for dying patients for more than 30 years, said: "The BMA is in a muddle on this issue. Its ethics committee recognises that dying patients should have the right to maintain control over as many aspects of their death as possible, but the BMA抯 reasons for opposing the bill are dated. It provides no real evidence about the harm it estimates to the doctor-patient relationship.
"If anything, one would expect this bond to be strengthened by the bill as it allows the doctor to respond more fully to patients?anxieties—hopefully often with reassurance—but if necessary to help the terminally ill with their choice of death if all else fails. The bill also provides some much needed safeguards for the doctor."
Commenting on the survey chairman of the BMA Ethics Committee, Dr Michael Wilks, made the following statement: "As the body representing doctors in the UK, the BMA is opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide because this is the view of the majority its members. VES' own survey results show this to be the case. When doctors who took part in the survey were asked under what circumstances they thought the law should permit voluntary euthanasia, 53% answered 'under no circumstances' ? a clear majority. Far from being in a 'muddle' the BMA is confident that it is projecting the majority viewpoint of doctors."(London Zosia Kmietowicz)
The survey, by the research organisation Medix UK, also found that 45% of the 1000 doctors questioned believe their colleagues are helping terminally ill patients to die. But as the law currently stands, their actions put them at risk of life imprisonment every time.
Over a quarter of the doctors surveyed (27%) said they had been asked by a patient for help to die.
Altogether, 56% of doctors said they were in favour of legislation to allow assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, provided there were stringent safeguards and national guidelines. Just under a quarter (21%) of doctors favoured a law against the practice and 22% were unsure how to respond to the issue.
However, when doctors were asked whether voluntary euthanasia should be permitted by law there was less support. Altogether 53% of respondents were against doctors directly helping patients die (rather than assisting in their suicide).
The results of the survey were released this week on the day that the BMA gave evidence to a specially convened House of Lords select committee on Lord Joffe抯 Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.
The BMA is against the bill, although both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners, which gave evidence last week, have dropped their opposition to it.
Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said: "This is an important survey. It puts beyond doubt the fact that the current law victimises both compassionate doctors and dying patients. Doctors are faced with the awful choice of either respecting the wishes of their terminally ill patients and helping them to die in the full knowledge that they could be prosecuted and face imprisonment, or abandoning their patient to yet more suffering at the end of life.
"It is time that we were open and honest about the need for the option of medically assisted dying at the end of life within proper safeguards. Only in this way will patients and doctors no longer be victims of this outdated and inhumane law."
Simon Kenwright, a consultant physician of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust who has cared for dying patients for more than 30 years, said: "The BMA is in a muddle on this issue. Its ethics committee recognises that dying patients should have the right to maintain control over as many aspects of their death as possible, but the BMA抯 reasons for opposing the bill are dated. It provides no real evidence about the harm it estimates to the doctor-patient relationship.
"If anything, one would expect this bond to be strengthened by the bill as it allows the doctor to respond more fully to patients?anxieties—hopefully often with reassurance—but if necessary to help the terminally ill with their choice of death if all else fails. The bill also provides some much needed safeguards for the doctor."
Commenting on the survey chairman of the BMA Ethics Committee, Dr Michael Wilks, made the following statement: "As the body representing doctors in the UK, the BMA is opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide because this is the view of the majority its members. VES' own survey results show this to be the case. When doctors who took part in the survey were asked under what circumstances they thought the law should permit voluntary euthanasia, 53% answered 'under no circumstances' ? a clear majority. Far from being in a 'muddle' the BMA is confident that it is projecting the majority viewpoint of doctors."(London Zosia Kmietowicz)