In the article, Tony Delamothe, UK editor, Rosamund Snow, patient editor, and Fiona Godlee, editor in chief, discuss the arguments for and against a change in the law, and suggest that providing assistance to terminally ill adults to end their lives is “the right thing to do.”
They write: “In recent decades, respect for autonomy has emerged as the cardinal principle in medical ethics and underpins developments in informed consent, patient confidentiality, and advance directives. Recognition of an individual’s right to determine his or her best interests lies at the heart of efforts to advance patient partnership. It would be perverse to suspend our advocacy at the moment a person’s days were numbered.”
The article follows a show of support for a change in the law from Prof John Ashton, President of the Faculty of Public Health, published in The Guardian yesterday.
As previously reported by ehospice, the second reading of Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill is due to take place on Friday 18 July.
Read The BMJ article, ‘Why the Assisted Dying Bill should become law in England and Wales’, on the journal’s website.
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