LONDON : Nearly 3,000 patients -- or eight people a day -- were
illegally helped to die in Britain in 2004, according to new
research which claims to be the country's first authoritative study
of euthanasia.
Just under half of one percent of the 585,000 deaths that year --
or 2,865 cases -- were assisted by doctors, the study by Professor
Clive Seale, from Brunel University, western England,
suggested.
An estimated one third -- or 192,000 -- had their deaths
accelerated by doctors using pain relief in a procedure known as
the "double effect".
The figures, published in the medical journal Palliative Medicine,
were extrapolated from responses to an anonymous survey of medics.
A total of 857 general practitioners and hospital specialists
responded.
Doctors described 0.16 percent of all deaths -- or 936 cases -- as
voluntary euthanasia.
A further 0.33 percent -- or 1,929 cases -- were said to be "ending
life without an explicit request from the patient", or
non-voluntary euthanasia.
These cases were said by Seale to involve patients very close to
death who had previously indicated their wishes for euthanasia but
were unable to give a specific instruction to doctors.
Both voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia are illegal under
British law.
No cases of suicide assisted by doctors were reported in the
survey.
"The rate in the UK is significantly lower than in other countries
where this survey has been conducted," said Seale.
"British doctors are somewhat less willing to break the law and
engage in these acts than doctors in other countries. In general
there is a culture of palliative care."
Responding to the survey, which was reported in a number of British
newspapers Wednesday, pro-euthanasia group the Voluntary Euthanasia
Society said it proved some doctors were breaking the law and
helping patients to die.
"This is all done in secret and denied in public," said its chief
executive Deborah Annetts. "This cannot be safe.
"We desperately need to put the patient at the centre of these
decisions and to make sure doctors are acting within proper
safeguards to protect the patient and themselves."
- AFP /ct