Physician-assisted suicide is incompatible with doctors’ duty to patients as spelled out in the GMC’s guidance, writes Dr James Haslam
I write in response to Dr Jagat Aulakh’s letter (A form of assisted dying already happens in hospitals, 8 May). It must be made clear that withholding or withdrawing futile treatments is not and never has been assisted dying. Stopping – or not starting – treatments that are not wanted, are not working or are not worthwhile is good medicine and the law of the land. Whereas “assisted dying” is the modern euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, both forms of medicalised killing.
The General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice guidance states: “Patients must be able to trust medical professionals with their lives and health. To justify that trust [doctors] must make the care of patients [their] first concern.” Assisted suicide and euthanasia is incompatible with such a duty. How can patients trust professionals who facilitate their killing?
