BMJ 1995;311:510 (19 August)

Letters

Voluntary euthanasia commands majority support

EDITOR,--I fail to see how Anne Rodway can assert that voluntary euthanasia in Britain enjoys only minority support among the general public1 when results of scientifically conducted polls emphatically tell a different story. A poll commissioned by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society in April 1993--the latest in a series each showing an increase on the last--showed 79% in support of euthanasia,2 and countless other surveys, albeit less scientific, after newspaper and magazine articles and television and radio programmes show similar results. If Rodway still doubts the veracity of these surveys, I would draw her attention to a poll in 1987 commissioned by an antieuthanasia group, the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life, which found 72% in favour of euthanasia.3

Finally, proponents of voluntary euthanasia do not see it as "a substitute for caring and supporting"; they see it as a widening of choice for dying patients and a final . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Euthanasia debate
Anne Rodway
BMJ 1995 310: 1466. [Extract] [Full Text]

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