Should patients be able to choose physician-assisted suicide at the end of their lives? For the proposal.

Abstract

On May 12, 2006, members of the UK House of Lords voted against a proposed Assisted Dying for the Terminal Ill Bill. This Bill was put forward to "enable an adult who has capacity and who is suffering as a result of a terminal illness to receive medical assistance to die at his own considered and persistent request". Under this Bill, it would be lawful for a physician, or a member of the health-care team working in conjunction with a physician, to assist a qualifying patient to die by prescribing drugs. In this Debate, Margaret Branthwaite, a retired barrister and former consultant medical practitioner, presents the case for physician-assisted suicide, whereas David Jeffrey, former chair of the ethics committee of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, presents the case against.