Britain: New guidance on end-of-life care

Description: [of the article from the World Federation of Right to Die Societies]

July 12, 2010: As of July 1, 2010 a new guidance for doctors by the UK General Medical Council "Treatment and care towards the end of life; good practice in decision making" has come into effect.

Comments on the guidelines:
Sarah Wootton, Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying said: "By placing the patient at the heart of the decision making process, these guidelines will be a welcome development for greater patient choice at the end of life. They make it clear that not only should doctors respect patient's end-of-life decisions, but they must adhere to valid Advance Decisions to refuse treatment at the end of life. The guidelines need to go further and advise doctors on how to react to this specific request, with sensitivity and within the constraints of the current law, given that there is no doubt they'll be asked."

Dr Ann McPherson, former GP and cancer patient said: "The guidelines need to address the issue of assisted dying. As a GP I have been asked on several occasions to help people to die, and we should be able to talk to patients about their options at the end of life without contravening the law."

[A PDF of the guidelines is available from a link on the web page.]
[There are other related stories in the Links section below.]

Links:

To read the full article click on one of these links, both of which go to the same destination. A short link is provided for the convenience of readers. Also, readers may search and browse past and future advisories on the web (see bottom.)

  • http://tinyurl.com/2cp5psy

  • http://worldrtd.net/node/991

    Also see:

  • Britain: Clarke open to murder law reforms [The Press Association]
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gQvOFsyARrFIsLAcpqBiVlql3AGg

    Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke is "sympathetic" to a reform of the law of murder, justice minister Lord McNally has said. He told peers at House of Lords question time that the Government was "mindful" of the recommendations of a Law Commission report which suggested a system of first and second-degree murder.

    "This is one of the issues that the Government will be looking at in its review of sentencing policy in general," Lord McNally said. He said the report put forward a range of alternatives that would give "a degree of flexibility to the judiciary when dealing with this matter".

    Lord Lloyd of Berwick asked Lord McNally: "Are you aware of any other country, whether in Europe or the Commonwealth, which has a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment in all cases of murder, including, for example, cases of mercy killing?"

Source:

"NEW GUIDANCE by UK General Medical Council on end of life care launched". World Federation of Right to Die Societies. July 12, 2010. <worldrtd.net/node/991>. Obtained via the WF RSS Feed: http://worldrtd.net/rss.xml. The World Federation of Right to Die Societies, Dr.Hugh Wynne, Secretary, Board of Directors, <secretary@worldrtd.net>.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • end-of-life care

  • medical treatment

  • end-of-life guidance

  • Britain

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201007126415.
Mailed: Monday, July 12, 2010 14:38:36 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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