Letters
Should doctors have a dual role, preserving life and assisting death?
EDITOR,--If we ever have formal state approved euthanasia or assisted suicide, is there any need for the doctors looking after the patient to be involved in any way in the actual doing of it? Indeed, is any doctor needed at this final stage?Serious consideration of this particular option, should the law be changed, has been urged before,1 but is not considered in articles on euthanasia including those in the BMJ of 11 and 18 March.2 3 It always seems to be assumed that if you legalise assisted suicide you need a doctor to do it.
One day, in some brave new world (hoped for by some, dreaded by others) assisted suicide may come to be regarded as the right of every citizen purely on the grounds of autonomy. Until then the doctors looking after a patient--and presumably at least one independent doctor--will always be needed to advise on at least
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This Article
- Full text
- Respond to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when responses are posted
- Alert me when a correction is posted
Services
- Email this article to a friend
- Find similar articles in BMJ
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Related Content
-
End of life decisions (geriatric medicine)
-
End of life decisions (palliative care)
-
Suicide (psychiatry)
-
Assisted dying
-
End of life decisions (ethics)
- Find this article in its weekly table of contents
Bookmark with
What's new
Latest blogs
Services
Tools
Online poll
Resources
Rapid responses for this article
There are no rapid responses for this article.Most read
Print issues
