The British Medical Association (BMA) has stated that if the United Kingdom legalizes assisted suicide, it would like doctors to be able to suggest assisted suicide as an option to their patients — even if the patient had never indicated a desire to die.
Dr. Andrew Green, the chair of the BMA’s medical ethics committee, cited the “sensitive” nature of assisted suicide as a reason why medical professionals should be able to suggest it. “After careful debate, we did conclude that there should be no requirement on doctors to raise the subject, but equally, they should be able to do so sensitively when they thought it was in the best interest of their patients,” he told The Guardian. “Some patients do find it difficult to bring up sensitive subjects in their consultations, and doctors are skilled at reading between the lines of what patients say and working out what has been left unsaid.”
As Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, noted, “This is important because pro-death doctors will readily bring up the option of assisted suicide. Jurisdictions where only the patient can bring up assisted suicide and doctors cannot introduce it, have lower assisted suicide death rates.”
READ: New study manipulates data on link between assisted suicide and suicide
According to The Guardian, the discussion around whether or not physicians should raise the option of assisted suicide is so contentious that as many as 30 MPs may change their vote supporting the bill if its final version contains that provision. Former cabinet minister David Davis and the Labour MPs Chris Webb and Mike Tapp, who all previously voted in favor of the bill, have specifically asked that the bill not allow it.
“I’m uncomfortable that it allows doctors to suggest to patients they could take their own lives and believe this needs to be removed from the bill,” Webb said.
“I voted for the bill because I believe that people should have choice, but if it’s to be a genuine choice then hospice care needs to be a viable, affordable, accessible option – and for too many it isn’t,” Roz Savage, another MP who previously voted in favor of the legislation, added. “And I very much take onboard the ‘slippery slope’ argument, as seems to have happened in other countries. I’m especially concerned that healthcare professionals must not proactively suggest assisted dying as an option – it should be left to the individual to make that suggestion.”
The BMA is the largest trade association and union for doctors in the United Kingdom. While its official position previously opposed assisted suicide, the BMA changed that stance to “neutral” in 2021 — a position that was seen as a win by many pro-euthanasia groups. In recent years, it has taken an anti-life stance in other ways as well, including advocating for the decriminalization of abortion after 24 weeks.
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