Published 3 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2699
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2699

News

BMA meeting: Doctors vote against protecting relatives who accompany people abroad for help with dying

Deborah Cohen

1 BMJ

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

BMA representatives have narrowly voted not to support legislation that would ensure that people accompanying a patient at an assisted death will not be subject to criminal prosecution.

Next week (Tuesday 7 July) the House of Lords will vote on an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill, which, if passed, would make it legal for relatives to help mentally competent adults who are terminally ill to travel abroad for assisted suicide.

Kailash Chand, a GP in Manchester, argued that the law must be defined and made unambiguous to protect the rights of terminally ill people. "We must also protect from prosecution or fear of prosecution the loved ones who help the terminally ill with this extremely tough decision and their physicians, who take on the enormous responsibility of implementing such difficult decisions," he said.

Dr Chand added that the only humane choice is to allow suffering people the choice . . . [Full text of this article]


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