BMJ 1995;310:1466 (3 June)

Letters

Doctors may be ignorant of treatments for intractable symptoms

EDITOR,--In his review of "Death on Request," in which a Dutch patient with motor neurone disease was shown being given euthanasia by his general practitioner, Peter Millard was critical of the "vanity" which the doctor showed.1 I felt that he showed great compassion and sincerity; what he did lack (and this was confirmed later in discussion on The Late Show the same evening) were the knowledge and skills to alleviate the pain the patient was already experiencing and the breath-lessness and suffocation that were anticipated.

The proponents of euthanasia say that having this option is giving patients choice. More often, euthanasia is seriously considered because of ignorance on the part of the patient's medical adviser of other ways of dealing with apparently intractable physical or psychological symptoms. Without training and experience in palliative care, I too would have little else to offer. I would not have known of the effective . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Public deaths, private doubts..
Peter H Millard
BMJ 1995 310: 746-747. [Full Text]

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