Changing the law could make it possible for nurses and chemists to prescribe medication to sick and disabled patients which would enable them to kill themselves, according to a report by Lord Carlile and Baroness Finlay.
In the paper commissioned by the pressure group Living and Dying Well they also warned that liberalising euthanasia regulations could lead to state agencies being set up to decide whether or not people should be helped to die.
Lord Carlile is the Government-appointed independent assessor of terror legislation while Lady Finlay is Professor of Palliative Care at Cardiff University.
Their analysis warned that desperate patients and their families could resort to ââ¬Ådoctor shoppingââ¬Â in a bid to find a GP to help them die.
The report said: ââ¬ÅThere is no reason why, if assisted dying were ever to be legalised, lethal drugs could not be prescribed by a physician, nurse of pharmacist.ââ¬Â
Although assisting a suicide carries a prison sentence of 14 years in Britain more than 150 Britons have travelled to Zurich to die in the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland in order to protect family members and friends from being charged with a crime.
Although two attempts to change the law in Britain have failed the government is under increasing pressure to support a right-to-die law.
Source link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...e-counter-if-euthanasia-laws-are-changed.html
In the paper commissioned by the pressure group Living and Dying Well they also warned that liberalising euthanasia regulations could lead to state agencies being set up to decide whether or not people should be helped to die.
Lord Carlile is the Government-appointed independent assessor of terror legislation while Lady Finlay is Professor of Palliative Care at Cardiff University.
Their analysis warned that desperate patients and their families could resort to ââ¬Ådoctor shoppingââ¬Â in a bid to find a GP to help them die.
The report said: ââ¬ÅThere is no reason why, if assisted dying were ever to be legalised, lethal drugs could not be prescribed by a physician, nurse of pharmacist.ââ¬Â
Although assisting a suicide carries a prison sentence of 14 years in Britain more than 150 Britons have travelled to Zurich to die in the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland in order to protect family members and friends from being charged with a crime.
Although two attempts to change the law in Britain have failed the government is under increasing pressure to support a right-to-die law.
Source link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...e-counter-if-euthanasia-laws-are-changed.html
