British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life

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The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
June 30, 2006 Friday

Celia Hall Medical Editor

DOCTORS gave a clear message yesterday that they were opposed to all forms of assisted dying in a series of votes at the British Medical Association annual conference in Belfast.

The decision reversed the contentious BMA policy approved last year which had adopted a neutral position.

The stance taken by the BMA, which represents more than 130,000 doctors, was in line with the position of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners, which are also opposed to legalising assisted dying.

Dr Andrew Davies, a junior doctor specialising in cancer care, speaking for the motion said that last year he had voted for the neutral stance.

"I did not fully understand. Now I work in an oncology centre. Many of my patients have a lot on their minds, they are facing huge issues and fears and for many this includes the effect on their families and not wanting to be a burden.

"My great concern is that the right to die becomes the duty to die to unburden their families,'' he said.

Baroness Ilora Finlay, a consultant in palliative care medicine, also speaking for the motion, asked if it was worse to die a few weeks later than a few weeks or months early, based on wrong information.

Lady Finlay had opposed Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill which was voted out by the House of Lords in May. She said that in Holland, where euthanasia is permitted, one in 32 people died by voluntary euthanasia. The country had no palliative care, she said.

"The world is listening to this debate," she said. "I know patients who have changed their minds. We risk giving the message that our response to suffering is to kill the sufferer," she said.

The doctors voted by 84 per cent to 16 per cent for an improvement in palliative care, by two thirds to one third against physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, by 94 per cent to six per cent against involuntary euthanasia for patients not able to make a decision. The voting was 82 to 18 per cent for a "clear demarcation between doctors in favour and those against, should laws ever be passed that allowed assisted dying".

Dr Michael Wilks, the chairman of the BMA ethics committee, said after the debate: "The BMA's position is now one of opposition to any further legislation. These decisions were made by a carefully elected body that represents the grass roots feeling of the profession. The message was very clear."