The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that it will oppose a bill recently brought forward by MSP Margo McDonald to introduce assisted suicide in Scotland for patients aged as young as 16.
Defeated
A similar bill introduced by the same MSP was defeated by the Scottish Parliament in a vote of 85-16 in 2010.
Under the new proposals, doctors will be permitted to prescribe lethal drugs to patients aged 16 or over if they have a progressive degenerative condition or illness that makes life “intolerable”.
“Alien” to role of doctors
But the Scottish BMA said that it would not support the proposals which it described as “alien” to the role of doctors as care givers and healers.
Dr Lewis Morrison, chair of the Scottish BMA consultants committee, said: “Despite the change in approach to this, Ms MacDonald’s most recent attempt to legislate on assisted dying in Scotland, the BMA will continue to oppose the introduction of such a law.
Fatal dose
He added: “Under these new proposals, doctors will still play a role in assessing, verifying and prescribing the fatal dose, if not administering it and therefore will be taking on a role that effectively allows them to help kill a patient.
“If doctors are authorised, by law, to kill or help kill they are taking on an additional role which we believe is alien to the one of care giver and healer.
The traditional doctor-patient relationship is founded on trust and this risks being impaired if the doctor’s role encompasses any form of intentional killing.”
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