Researchers propose new de-medicalized approach to assisted dying medicalxpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicalxpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Despite growing legal and medical support for assisted dying, many healthcare professionals do not want to be directly involved. Could a de-medicalised approach help to overcome this? Nancy Preston , Sheila Payne , and Suzanne Ost discuss
Assisted dying involves a patient receiving drugs to end their life. There drugs are either self-administered (assisted suicide) or administered by someone else (euthanasia). Various countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and some Australian states, have changed laws to permit assisted dying.1 But debate about whether assisted dying is morally justified tends to assume that, were it legalised, it would be part of healthcare. The possibility of situating assisted dying outside healthcare would significantly reposition the debate.
Many doctors who support legal reform on assisted dying in the UK acknowledge they do not wish to be directly involved.23 In most countries providing assisted dying, only a minority of do