New information service ‘would reassure medics and patients on assisted dying’
New information service ‘would reassure medics and patients on assisted dying’
Share:
An official information service should be set up for patients who want to know more about an assisted dying service if a law comes into force to legalise it, a doctor has told MPs. Dr Andrew Green, chairman of the British Medical Association’s medical ethics committee, called for such a service to be provided to give tailored information about assisted dying and other services such as palliative care.
Dr Green said there is a challenge for doctors in knowing when to have certain conversations with patients, but that they also “need to be able to open the door for the patient to go through into a safe space to have those difficult discussions”. He told MPs on the committee scrutinising the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: “We actually believe it’s important that patients should be able to access personalised information.
“We would like to see an official information service set up that patients could go to either as a self-referral or as a recommendation from their GPs or other doctors.”. In 2021, the BMA – the doctors’ union – shifted from a position against assisted dying to one of neutrality.
He said the BMA had not taken a view on whether an assisted dying service should be provided by the NHS but said there should certainly be a “degree of separation” so that it is not “part of any doctor’s normal job to provide assisted dying”.
