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Leading medical academics reject legalised euthanasia
London, 15 October 2001--Eminent medical scholars speaking at a prestigious ethical conference have rejected the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.
Speaking at Ethical Dilemmas at the Beginning and End of Life: the Clinician's Challenge,
Dr Raanan Gillon, emeritus professor of medical ethics at Imperial
College, London, said: "I have changed my mind over the years about the
legalisation of voluntary euthanasia. It would do more harm than good.
The confusion it would make between forseeing and intending a patient's
death could lead to doctors like Harold Shipman using the excuse that
they were simply 'withholding life-prolonging treatment'." Dr Gillon
also warned that legalising euthanasia could lead to some doctors'
convincing patients that they should accept death.
Dr Daniel Callahan, senior fellow at Harvard Medical School,
Massachusetts, said: "I agree totally with Professor Gillon. If
euthanasia is legalised, many physicians will refuse to co-operate with
it. The application of mercy-killing has no logical boundaries. All
physical pain and suffering can be relieved by palliative care. Dignity
can only be thought of as inherent, not contingent on physical
condition."
Other speakers and participants at the conference raised concerns about other questions do to with euthanasia.
Professor Rebecca Dresser, professor of law and ethics in
medicine at Washington University, Missouri, highlighted the danger of
vulnerable patients' being denied treatment because doctors, relatives
or proxy decision-makers deemed the patient's life as not worth living.
An SPUC spokesman said: "We are heartened to know that such
eminent doctors and ethicists are aware of the dangers of legalising
euthanasia. At the same time, we would draw attention to two areas in
which euthanasia is already gaining ground: legally-sanctioned
starvation/dehydration of PVS sufferers, and the neglect of care for
very elderly patients, hastening death in some cases. We hope that the
whole medical profession, as well as policy-makers, will heed the
warnings coming from this conference."
Ethical Dilemmas at the Beginning and End of Life: the Clinician's Challenge is being hosted today by the Royal Society of Medicine in London and is organised by the society and the New York Academy of Medicine.
