42% of GPs 'prepared to help terminal patients die'

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A survey of 309 GPs for Pulse magazine found 30 per cent thought physician-assisted suicide should be legalised, and 42 per cent would be prepared to help a patient die if it were.

The research also found more than half (54 per cent) of those questioned had withheld treatment such as antibiotics to a patient knowing it could hasten their death, while 79 per cent said such a decision could be justified.

The survey showed 58 per cent of those questioned had given pain-relieving drugs which might hasten death, even if that was not the intended consequence, while 76 per cent said to do so could be justified.

In response to the survey, Dignity in Dying chief executive Deborah Annetts said: "This survey clearly shows what we have long said - that doctors hold a range of views on assisted dying and many support a change in the law.

"Pulse magazine's survey demonstrates that GPs are in touch with the views of the vast majority of their patients. Eighty per cent of the public believe that a terminally ill person should have the option of an assisted death.

"Given the range of views held by doctors on this issue, it is a shame the organisations that are supposed to represent them are failing to do so. This issue is of great importance to the public."

She said a survey last year found 60 per cent of GPs supported the British Medical Association's neutral position on assisted dying, but that the BMA had since reverted to opposing assisted suicide.

"This survey by Pulse is yet another signal that the medical associations are out of step with doctors and the public," Ms Annetts said.