Euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke has called for a review of the laws on mercy killing after a study showed that more than a third of surgeons admitted hastening the deaths of terminally ill patients, mostly without explicit consent.

The anonymous poll of 683 surgeons in New South Wales, published in the Medical Journal of Australia (2001;175:511-5), found that 247 (36%) had administered high doses of painkillers with the intent of bringing death, with half of these respondents saying that there was …