Assisted dying should form part of a good palliative care service for terminally ill people in the United Kingdom, said Ann McPherson, a GP and founder of a new group of medical professionals called Dignity in Dying: Healthcare Professionals for Change (BMJ 2010;341:c5498, doi:10.1136/bmj.c5498). Speaking at a debate hosted by the Medical Journalists’ Association last week on assisted dying and whether the law should be changed, Dr McPherson, who is herself dying from pancreatic cancer, called for the law on assisted dying to be changed in a “narrow way” so that people who are dying and who are able to make the decision on how and when they would like to end their life can do so. “Without a change in the law it will make it much more difficult for some people to have a dignified death, which is what everybody is entitled to,” she said.