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thomas davison

End opposition to assisted dying and move to position of neutrality, doctors are toldBy Jenny Hope
PUBLISHED: 02:15, 14 June 2012 | UPDATED: 02:15, 14 June 2012

Doctors must end their opposition to assisted dying for terminally ill people and move to a position of neutrality, says the British Medical Journal.
A major bid to shift the stance of the medical establishment is signalled today by the influential publication, which calls for a change in the law.
The journal, published by a subsidiary of the British Medical Association (BMA), says legalisation of assisted dying is a decision for society, not doctors, so royal medical colleges and the BMA should become neutral on the issue.
Doctors have been adviced to adopt a more neutral stance to euthanasia in an article published in the British Medical Journal (picture posed by models)
In an editorial and a series of articles, the journal supports a new push for reforms by the pro-legalisation group Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying (HPAD). It comes ahead of a debate at the BMA�s annual policy-making meeting on whether to adopt a neutral position.
A new poll of 1,000 GPs commissioned by Dignity in Dying found 62 per cent support neutrality, while public support for legalisation of assisted dying is at 80 per cent.

The BMJ is one of the UK�s foremost medical journals, so its decision to spearhead calls for a shift in the position of doctors will carry weight beyond the profession.
Journal editor Fiona Godlee said in an editorial it was �almost inevitable� that the demand from society for greater patient choice would lead to change � in a similar way to abortion reform in the 1960s.
The journal is owned by the BMA, but the association says its views �may not necessarily comply with BMA policy�.

The Care Not Killing Alliance, a coalition of 30 anti-euthanasia organisations, said a �carefully orchestrated campaign� was under way to undermine the historic opposition of the medical profession to assisted dying.
Director Dr Peter Saunders said: �The profession could be caught napping by a seemingly small change in position by the BMA to become neutral when the real agenda is legalisation of euthanasia. It would herald a huge change.�

Most of the leading medical colleges, including the Royal College of GPs, Royal College of Surgeons of England and Association of Palliative Medicine, are actively opposed to assisted dying, while others have no position or are neutral.
HPAD chairman Raymond Tallis said the BMA�s argument that it is against the ethos of medicine ran counter to the �monstrous cruelty of walking away from a dying patient in unbearable suffering�.
But Dr Iona Heath, president of the Royal College of GPs, said those in favour of allowing doctors to help people to die had an �excessively rosy view of society�.
She warned that it would be impossible to draft a law robust enough to protect the vulnerable: �It is all too easy for sick and disabled people to believe they are becoming an intolerable burden to those closest to them.
�In such circumstances a request for assisted dying can become a sort of sacrifice on the part of the dying person, with complicit, self-interested support from relatives, professional or carers.�
The BMA�s debate at its annual meeting this month mirrors its conference in 2005, when the change was first proposed and won.

But a grassroots revolt the following year reversed the policy.
Although the BMA is a trade union, its 144,000-strong membership drawn from all corners of the profession gives it a unique voice.

In other words, after people have worked until they are 70 and paid all their taxes, and may be looking forward to a rest at the end of a lifetime's work - kill them to avoid having to pay their pensions or their healthcare. Next stage, Soylent Green, especially if there is no longer enough food to feed the burgeoning human population.