Rechtsonzekerheid voor artsen bij uitvoering euthanasie onacceptabel Artsen houden zich goed aan de euthanasiewet, zo blijkt uit de tweede evaluatie van deze wet. Maar zij worden geconfronteerd met rechtsonzekerheid over het toetsingskader. Daarom steunt de KNMG de aanbeveling van een code of practice voor de toetsingscommissies en dringt zij aan op duidelijkheid over de waarde van de schriftelijke wilsverklaring bij wilsonbekwame patiënten. De KNMG reageert hiermee op de tweede evaluatie van de Wet toetsing levensbeëindiging op verzoek en hulp bij zelfdoding (Wtl).
Un débat interne à l’ensemble de l’Institution ordinale a été conduit avant cette expression publique. Il en résulte que la fin de la vie d’une personne dans ces situations implique profondément le corps médical selon les principes éthiques de bienfaisance et d’humanité. L’Ordre national des médecins propose donc de promouvoir une meilleure connaissance de la loi Leonetti et d’envisager des améliorations susceptibles de répondre à des situations exceptionnelles. L’Ordre national des médecins apportera sa contribution au débat sociétal quant à l’euthanasie délibérée et au suicide assisté.
The MDU has grave concerns about how the new policy* on whether or not to prosecute the offence of assisted suicide, will be applied to doctors. “The MDU’s advice to its members remains that doctors approached by patients for advice about suicide should not engage in discussion which assists the patient to that end. Members who are faced with requests for help from patients, including for example the provision of medical reports, should contact us for advice.”
A leading doctors’ organisation has today warned that doctors face a greater risk of prosecution for assisting a patient’s suicide following the publication of the DPP’s final Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide. The Medical Protection Society (MPS) – which provides indemnity, legal and professional support to around half of all doctors in the UK – said that the new policy sends a clear signal that prosecutions are more likely to be brought against healthcare professionals in circumstances where they might have assisted a patient’s suicide. The organisation warned doctors to be extremely cautious when providing help or advice to patients who are considering assisted suicide.
The BMA has long advised doctors - for moral as well as legal reasons - to avoid actions that might be interpreted as assisting, facilitating or encouraging a suicide attempt. This means not giving patients advice on what constitutes a fatal dose or on anti-emetics in relation to a planned overdose, not suggesting the option of suicide abroad nor writing medical reports specifically to facilitate assisted dying abroad, nor on any other aspects of planning a suicide.
UK doctors have set up a new group for health professionals to challenge the BMA and a number of royal colleges in their stance against assisted dying for terminally ill people and to push for a change in the law. The group, called Dignity in Dying: Healthcare Professionals for Change, was set up by Ann McPherson, who is dying of pancreatic cancer, after an article she wrote in the BMJ last year generated interest in giving people who are dying the option of help to end their lives when they chose (BMJ 2009;339:b2827 doi:10.1136/bmj.b2827). Dr McPherson, who is a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said she wants the royal colleges to have a more informed debate about assisted suicide.
Exit International is the world's leading Voluntary Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide information and advocacy organisation. A registered non-profit organisation, Exit was founded in 1997 by Philip Nitschke. In 1996, Dr Nitschke became the first physician to administer a legal, lethal voluntary injection, under the world's first right to die law - the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act of the Northern Territory of Australia.
The Society for Old Age Rational Suicide was established in Brighton and Hove, by several right-to-die activists and humanists, in 2009. Presently, the main objective of SOARS is to begin a campaign to get the law eventually changed in the UK so that very elderly, mentally competent individuals, who are suffering unbearably from various health problems (although none of them is “terminal”) are allowed to receive a doctor’s assistance to die, if this is their persistent choice. Surely the decision to decide, at an advanced age, that enough is enough and, avoiding further suffering, to have a dignified death is the ultimate human right for a very elderly person. Although there is much public support for this to become lawful in the UK, it is unlikely that Parliament (either at Westminster or in Edinburgh) will change the law, to help those who are terminally ill, for at least five to ten years.
[...] the Panel was persuaded that the law in Canada [...] should be changed to allow some form of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. Putting the philosophical analysis together with the lessons learned from [a] review of the paths taken in other jurisdictions that have moved to more permissive regimes, the Panel considered the options for the design of a permissive regime and suggests the following legal mechanisms for achieving the reform and the core elements of the proposed reform.
A public policy think tank, which aims to promote “rational, evidence-based and measured debate” on the subject of assisted dying, has been launched by two members of the House of Lords. Lord Alex Carlile and Baroness Ilora Finlay, co-chairs of Living and Dying Well, have both fervently opposed any change in the law on this issue. Their new organisation is neither “neutral” nor “a campaigning pressure group,” instead, they want to present “hard evidence” to parliament and the public in an objective and informative manner.
In February 2010 the NVVE, Right-to-Die Netherlands, supported by other social organizations, started the campaign Completed Life. Interrupting this societal debate again shouldn’t be allowed. The NVVE is of the opinion that the elderly should be allowed to make a well thought-through choice at the end of their lives and that such a choice will be entirely up to them. Of course, people are not forced to make use of assisted suicide, but they should be at liberty to resort to such, if they wish to. When human suffering can be avoided, the NVVE is of the opinion that access to assistance shouldn’t be withheld. Obviously, under all circumstances all forms of due-care should be practiced.
This End of life guidance covers three main issues: contemporaneous and advance refusal of treatment; withholding and withdrawing life-prolonging medical treatment; assisted dying - euthanasia and assisted suicide.