Doctors won’t be disciplined for giving records to patients thinking of assisted suicide, says GMC

UK doctors who hand over medical records to patients who are contemplating assisted suicide abroad will not face disciplinary action by their regulator for aiding a suicide, the General Medical Council says in new guidance.

The guidance ends uncertainty after legal advice was issued to some doctors that they faced a possible charge of assisting a suicide or disciplinary proceedings just for releasing records to patients who wanted to end their lives abroad. Assisting a suicide is a crime in the United Kingdom carrying a possible jail sentence.

A steady stream of terminally ill people from the UK have sought help at the Dignitas …