BMA annual meeting: Doctors vote to maintain opposition to assisted dying

Doctors at the BMA’s annual representatives meeting in Belfast have voted 63% to 37% for the association to maintain its opposition to assisted dying, in response to a motion urging it to adopt a neutral stance on the issue.

The debate went ahead after representatives voted 50:50 on an earlier motion proposed by Andrew Mowat that it should not take place.1 He argued that MPs in the Scottish parliament and the House of Commons had recently rejected bills on physician assisted dying and that the issue had been debated at seven of the last 10 BMA annual meetings.

“The issue of [physician …