The RCP consults on physician assisted suicide: What do the papers have to say?

Here are some press highlights before the consultation closes tomorrow

In an article on January 24th, we wrote about the current consultation on Physician Assisted Suicide at the Royal College of Physicians. Since we voiced our concerns regarding the way in which the poll was being conducted, a number of doctors and parliamentarians have also written about the problems which this poll poses. Here are some highlights below:

Baroness Grey-Thompson wrote in The Times arguing the consultation should be halted.

“What is being done now is a travesty of a consultation and unless its halted and restarted, it risks bringing the college into direspute as a professional body.”

You can read the full article here

Dominic Lawson in the Daily Mail, notes a decpetive use of language in the consulation.

Former Chair of Ethics, at the Royal College of Physicians, Professor John Saunders, refers to the “sham poll” in a letter to The Guardian.

Meanwhile, Dr Amy Proffitt says doctors cannot be neutral on assisted suicide, in The Spectator.

At the beginning of February, eminent doctors lined up and voiced their concern about the consultation in a letter to The Times. They said: ” We call on the college to retain the more orthodox, justifiable and democratic approach that it has used in the past when interpreting this poll….”