Time to legalise assisted dying?: Doctors cannot simultaneously be patient centred and reject assisted suicide

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7520.842-d

BMJ 2005;331:842-843 (8 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7520.842-d

Letter

Time to legalise assisted dying?

Doctors cannot simultaneously be patient centred and reject assisted suicide

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—You can't aspire to be patient centred and simultaneouslyreject assisted suicide.¹ That's the discomfort that afflictsthe Royal College of General Practitioners and other doctorswho reject assisted suicide. They cling to a world where "doctorknows best," a world that is as dead as "politicians know bestand so be respectful and follow what we do."

Of course, assisted suicide is anathema to many. But to an equalnumber—and probably more—it has the potential toallow a graceful and dignified exit from life.

I (HS) am 75, fit, and enjoying life, although I lost my husbandof more than 50 years last year. I'm not lonely, and being onmy own allows me to do things that weren't possible when myhusband was alive—like listening to Beethoven string quartets,which he found tuneless and mournful. But my life is diminished,and the work of my life . . . [Full text of this article]

Hazel Smith, mother, grandmother, and widow

Tonbridge TN9 2UT

Richard Smith, son and iconoclastic, loquacious ex-editor

richardswsmith@yahoo.co.uk
Tonbridge TN9 2UT