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BMJ editors: England, Wales should pass assisted dying bill
In an editorial published in the British Medical Journal, the publication’s editors suggest an assisted dying bill, introduced to the House of Lords by Lord Charles Falconer, be enacted into law in England and Wales.
“It’s the right thing to do, and most people want it,” declares the subheading of the editorial. The bill is scheduled for a second reading in the House of Lords on July 18.
According to a poll conducted by YouGov, an international market research firm in the United Kingdom, 73% of adults living in England and Wales support assisted dying while only 13% oppose the measure.
The bill creates provisions for terminally ill patients aged at least 18 years to request assisted death from their doctor through the use of prescribed medication. The person must sign a declaration and have “the capacity to make the decision to end their own life,” according to the bill, and a second independent doctor must examine the person and countersign the declaration. The decision to end their own life must be “reached voluntarily, on an informed basis and without coercion or duress” according to the bill. A 14-day waiting period would follow before medication or a device to self-administer medication could be dispensed.
Supporters of the bill, including BMJ editors, cite statistics which follow an assisted death law enacted in 1997 in Oregon. According to the editorial, assisted death in Oregon last year accounted for 2.2 of every 1,000 deaths in the state. From those figures, the editors estimate that in England and Wales one patient in every 9,300 would request an assisted death, and that any given general practice would dispense one prescription for assisted death medication every 5 or 6 years.
“Some doctors are unhappy about the part they would be asked to play. However, the bill makes robust allowance for conscientious objection — a provision that has worked well for the almost 50 years of the Abortion Act,” the editors wrote. They added that the law in Oregon did not hinder advances in palliative care.
“Oregon’s experience confounds claims that assisted dying legislation impedes the development of palliative care. Oregon is now regarded as a national leader in palliative care,” they wrote, and added that the Oregon Hospice Association, which initially opposed the bill, has stated the legislation has not undermined end-of-life care.