Same old Assisted Dying plan, same old unresolved problem – that it would put the vulnerable at risk
by Desmond Swayne MP:
The pressures are being ramped up yet again to legalise what’s being called ‘assisted dying’ for terminally ill people. No one can doubt the sincerity of those concerned, but the idea just hasn’t been thought through.
We are told not to worry, because there would be strict safeguards. But when you look more closely at these, you see they are little more than vague phrases. Let’s examine some of them.
Doctors can diagnose terminal illness and offer a prognosis, but their judgements and forecasts are vulnerable to error. Lord Mackay’s Select Committee, which looked at the proposal, was told of errors, including misdiagnosis of terminal illness, revealed in around one in twenty post mortems.
Doctors pointed out to the committee that prognosis is far from being an exact science and that, at a range of six months, it was, in the words of one doctor, “pretty desperately hopeless” (House of Lords Report 86-I (2004-05), Paragraph 118).
But doctors would be expected to do more than diagnose and offer a prognosis. They would be expected to make decisions on whether a wish to die was a settled wish, or whether there were any family or other pressures underlying a request. These are not medical matters, and many doctors are in no position to offer a knowledge-based opinion on them. Gone are the days when the ‘family doctor’ is a regular visitor to our homes and knows us and our families well.
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