UK: Suicide ‘shouldn’t involve medics’

December 3, 2008

Physician assisted suicide has been legal for a decade in the US state of Oregon.

But palliative care specialist David Jeffrey says there are grave questions about whether people are being helped to die, when treatment for depression could be a highly successful alternative.

In this week’s Scrubbing Up column Dr Jeffrey, who is based at the University of Edinburgh, says a patient should be free to end their life – but doctors should not be involved. (BBC)