Assisted dying

The BMJ has provided a platform for debate on assisted dying for over 15 years. The depth of personal, professional, and religious feeling on the matter is divided worldwide, as much among doctors as it is among the general public.

2018

• News: Assisted dying: Guernsey rejects proposal to move towards legalisation
• BMJ Opinion: End of life care—the assisted dying debate continues
• Editor's choice: Assisted dying: it’s time to poll UK doctors
• Personal view: Most UK doctors support assisted dying, a new poll shows: the BMA’s opposition does not represent members
• Commentary: Palliative care and assisted dying are not mutually exclusive
• Feature: Assisted dying in US and Canada: controversy subsides after legalisation
• Essay: How it feels to help a terminally ill patient to die a dignified death
• Patient Commentary: “I don’t want to go to Switzerland, and I don’t want to attempt suicide”
• Head to head: Should doctor assisted dying be legal?
• BMJ Opinion: Assisted dying—how safe is safe enough?

2017

• Personal view: Why I’ve changed my views on assisted dying
• Letter: Assisted death in “healthy” old age needs consideration
• Analysis: Assisted dying for healthy older people: a step too far?

2016

• Analysis: Embracing inherent uncertainty in advanced illness
• Editorial: End of life care still not living up to public and doctors’ expectations
• Personal view: My mum’s decision changed my view of assisted dying

2015

• Letter: Matters arising from The BMJ’s stance on assisted dying
• David Oliver: What to do about end of life scare stories
• Letter: The BMJ’s views on assisted dying: non-representative of its audience
• Letter: The Assisted Dying Bill is not a UK bill
• Editor's Choice: Assisted dying—time for a full and fair debate
• Head to head: Would judicial consent for assisted dying protect vulnerable people?
• Personal view: Assisted dying: legal ambiguity lets down families as well as patients
• Personal view: Mental capacity as a safeguard in assisted dying: clarity is needed
• Feature: Assisted dying: law and practice around the world
• Feature: A doctor who chose an assisted death
• Feature: In support of assisted dying

2014

• Letter: Data to support assisted dying
• Letter: No man is an island
• Letter: Why The BMJ should not declare a stance on assisted dying
• Letter: Why public opinion should not enter the debate about assisted dying
• Letter: Attending to the vulnerabilities of people who are dying
• Letter: Widening the net of assisted suicide to vulnerable people
• Letter: Why the Assisted Dying Bill is not needed in England and Wales
• Letter: Assisting suicide goes against why most of us became doctors
• Letter: Some data on assisted dying from Oregon are worrying
• Personal view: An assisted dying law might save me from a lingering and unpleasant death
• Letter: “Misleading falsehoods” regarding assisted dying?
• Margaret McCartney: The BMJ is wrong: doctor assisted dying would overmedicalise death
• Editor's Choice: Choice in matters of life and death
• Observations: We must not deprive dying people of the most important protection
• Editorials: Why the Assisted Dying Bill should become law in England and Wales
• Letter: The limits of palliative care
• Letter: RCGP consultation on assisted dying was comprehensive and conclusively in favour of no change to the law
• Editorials: Why is talking about dying such a challenge?
• Observations: Assisted dying is not the same as euthanasia
• Letter: All RCGP members should be balloted on assisted dying
• Feature: The end of life

2013

• Letter: The Swiss experience of assisted suicide is positive
• Letter: Giving dying people what they want
• Letter: What do families and professional organisations really think about assisted dying?
• Letter: The law should be changed to allow assisted dying
• Personal view: Legalising assisted dying puts vulnerable patients at risk and doctors must speak up
• Feature: Assisted dying: what happens after Vermont?

2012

• Letter: Not all “good” doctors do it anyway
• Letter: The “least worst” course of action?
• Personal view: Assisted dying: “all good doctors do it anyway”
• Personal view: Terminally ill people shouldn’t have to travel abroad for assisted dying
• Letter: A carefully crafted law should protect and reassure vulnerable people
• Letter: Abortion reform’s lessons for assisted dying
• Letter: Safe laws on assisted dying are working worldwide
• Letter: My journey from anti to pro assisted dying
• Letter: Why neutrality on assisted dying is not an option for doctors’ professional organisations
• Letter: Editorial note on results of assisted dying poll
• Observations: Our professional bodies should stop opposing assisted dying
• Personal view: My mum wanted assisted dying but we watched her die slowly and in pain
• Editorial: Assisted dying
• Letter: Doctors need to perfect the art of allowing patients to die with dignity
• Letter: Legislation and debate are needed
• Letter: Malign individuals would probably be identified with legislation
• Letter: Consider suffering associated with lack of control over dying
• Letter: Where’s the evidence for malign relatives, professionals, or carers?
• Observation: What’s wrong with assisted dying
• Letter: Does the BMJ have a particular ideology to pursue in assisted dying?

2011

• Letter: So, farewell then, doctrine of double effect
• Letter: My experience with euthanasia
• Letter: Missed opportunity to advance debate on assisted dying
• Letter: Call for an evidence based debate on assisted dying
• Observation: Assisted dying: are doctors in denial?
• Personal view: Assisted dying: we are not alone
• Letter: Assisted dying versus assisted living
• Letter: Tallis’s slippery slope
• Letter: European-wide debate needed
• Letter: Anti-euthanasia cards
• Letter: Better framework needed
• Letter: Try another approach, BMJ
• Letter: What of virtue and integrity?
• Letter: Put everything out in the open
• Letter: Let’s get the words right too
• Letter: Time to be neutral?

2010

• Des Spence: A death of reason
• Des Spence: Talking about a revolution
• Personal view: Assisted suicide: a substitute for a caring doctor?
• Letter: A step backwards?
• Letter: Do it properly or not at all
• Editorial: Doctors and assisted suicide
• Letter: Suicide and euthanasia paradox
• Research: Reporting of euthanasia in medical practice in Flanders, Belgium: cross sectional analysis of reported and unreported cases
• Spotlight: Dying matters: let’s talk about it
• Spotlight: Achieving a good death for all
• Observation: Care Not Killing
• Observation: Half truths and one and a half truths about assisted dying
• Letter: RCA clarifies its position
• Letter: RSM is independent

2009

• Letter: Clinicians need clarification
• Letter: Time for safety and consistency
• Letter: The issue is patient safety
• Research: Euthanasia and other end of life decisions and care provided in final three months of life: nationwide retrospective study in Belgium
• Editorial: End of life decisions and quality of care before death
• Personal view: An extremely interesting time to die
• Editor's choice: Let’s talk about assisted dying
• Feature: Assisted suicide: the fight goes on
• Editorial: End of life care in the acute hospital setting
• Letter: Doctors, steer clear
• Letter: Observations: Assisted dying: what’s disability got to do with it?
• Letter: A baroness replies
• Letter: Authors respond to editorial
• Letter: Doctors can be trusted
• Letter: Life is a terminal condition
• Letter: Doctors’ attitudes surveyed
• Letter: Doctors, steer entirely clear
• Letter: Counting end of life decisions
• Editorial: Death and dying
• Editorial: New interim guidance on assisted suicide
• Personal view: Letting go
• Research: Concept of unbearable suffering in context of ungranted requests for euthanasia: qualitative interviews with patients and physicians
• Personal view: Euthanasia and free speech in Ireland

2008

• Letter: Please, don’t forget ethical responsibilities
• Letter: Dutch research reflects problems with the Liverpool care pathway
• Analysis: Development of palliative care and legalisation of euthanasia: antagonism or synergy?
• Editorial: Continuous deep sedation in patients nearing death
• Research: Continuous deep sedation for patients nearing death in the Netherlands: descriptive study
• Research: Prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients requesting physicians’ aid in dying: cross sectional survey
• Letter: Euthanasia and depression: no surprise
• Letter: Depression in terminal illness
• Letter: Psychiatric review is mandatory in Australia
• Editorial: Depression and physician assisted dying
• Observations: Paving the way for assisted suicide
• Practice: The last wish of a patient with end stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

2006-2007

• Editorial: Physician assisted death in vulnerable populations
• Letter: Are we asking the right questions?
• Editorial: Euthanasia in neonates
• Letter: Double effect is a myth leading a double life
• Analysis: Role of non-governmental organisations in physician assisted suicide

2005

• Letter: RCGP is not neutral: it opposes a change in legislation
• Letter: Response from the Association for Palliative Medicine
• Letter: BMA should take an active role, whatever that may be
• Letter: What autonomy really means
• Letter: Do we make decisions by our feelings or the truth?
• Letter: No, thank you
• Letter: Recruiting more vulnerable doctors may be the answer
• Letter: Use of Baxter products in figure for physician assisted suicide was inappropriate
• Letter: Doctors cannot simultaneously be patient centred and reject assisted suicide
• Letter: Time to legalise assisted dying? : Summary of responses
• Editor's choice: A time to die
• Education and debate: Time for change
• Education and debate: Legalised euthanasia will violate the rights of vulnerable patients
• Education and debate: Changes in BMA policy on assisted dying
• Education and debate: Moral dimensions
• Education and debate: Dutch experience of monitoring euthanasia
• Education and debate: Legal view of right to life and death could threaten philosophy of palliative care
• Education and debate: Sensitivity and humility are needed when dealing with dying people
• Education and debate: No man (or woman) is an island
• Letter: “Right to die”: Summary of responses
• Editorial: “Right to die”
• Review: Whose Life is it Anyway?
• Education and debate: Timers on ventilators

2004

• Recent developments: Suicide in older people
• The Good Euthanasia Guide 2004: Where, What, and Who in Choices in Dying
• Am I breaking the law again?
• Assisted suicide

2003

• Dead issue
• Oregon update
• Doctors' opinions on euthanasia, end of life care, and doctor-patient communication: telephone survey in France
• Doctors should not discuss resuscitation with terminally ill patients
• Patient centred death
• Effects of euthanasia on the bereaved family and friends: a cross sectional study
• National survey of medical decisions at end of life made by New Zealand general practitioners
• Patients' voices are needed in debates on euthanasia
• Law needs to be changed to allow terminally ill people choice of a dignified death
• Do we really know what happens in this country?
• Both how and when determines a good death
• Doctors occupy special position
• Doctors should keep out of it
• “Comfort care” needs robust moral framework
• Distinction needs to be made between choice and obligation
• Assisted suicide and euthanasia in Switzerland
• Death in a consumer society
• Allowing a role for non-physicians
• Lethal injection: a stain on the face of medicine