Ethics chief for British doctors favours assisted suicide
The chairman of the ethics committee of the British Medical Association says that he supports the right to assisted suicide. Dr Michael Wilkes says that “if competent people can now make legally binding decisions to refuse life-saving treatment… to then go a little bit further where people could make competent decisions to determine the time and the way they die, how big a step is that? Legally it is huge. It goes from perfectly legal to [a] life sentence. But morally and ethically, is it that much of a difference? If it is not, why is there such a difference between the two?”
A proposal to legalise assisted suicide will be debated next week at the BMA’s annual conference. Although support for the change is said to be growing, especially amongst younger doctors, many are still opposed. Dr Ian Bailey, a chemical pathologist, says that terminally ill patients should be offered better palliative care rather than the option of assisted suicide
- Prescribe morning-after pills to young teenagers, say US pediatric group - November 30, 2012
- Bahrain sentences protest docs to prison - November 28, 2012
- Terry Pratchett assisted suicide documentary wins International Emmy - November 27, 2012
More Stories
War and peace: Israeli physicians treating Palestinian patients
In the midst of the bitter war between Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza, there is a ray...
Court rules ‘voluntary assisted dying’ is suicide
Such is the stigma surrounding suicide that advocates of “voluntary assisted dying” insist vehemently that it is by no means...
Is poverty a cause of the rise of trans identity in the UK?
UK rates of transgender identity have risen at least 5-fold since 2000, with the highest rise observed among 16 to...
Donor anonymity becomes a battleground in the US
Donor-conceived Americans who want the federal government to abolish donor anonymity are getting pushback from the LGBTQI+ lobby. On the...
Should there be a ‘dead donor rule’ for sperm donation?
Sperm donation creates a web of exceedingly complex relationships. The HeyReprotech Newsletter (a great Substack resource for news about assisted...
The oldest mother in Africa is single and broke
A 70-year-old Ugandan woman has given birth to twins after receiving IVF treatment. Safina Namukwaya delivered a boy and a...