The Medical Association does not support doctors deliberately helping patients die, no matter the circumstances or law says New Zealand Medical Association chairman Stephen Child.
He said that doctors should be removed from any process aimed at making decisions about dying.
Doctors were not trained to kill people, were not equipped to determine whether a patient really wanted to die, and sometimes were just plain wrong about a patient’s chance of recovery, Child said.
“It’s not our bag. I think you really need to remove doctors from all of this.”
Childs was responding to the results of a fax poll of general practitioners, conducted by magazine New Zealand Doctor and IMS Health.
110 doctors responded to the poll
Of those surveyed:
- 45.5 per cent believed the law needed to change to legally protect doctors who helped terminally ill patients die, compared to 44.5 per cent who did not.
- About two out of five doctors also said they had been asked to help a patient die, although most had refused.
- 12 per cent of respondents said they had helped a patient die.
Some doctors responding to the survey said even if they weren’t helping patients die, pain relief could effectively have the same outcome.
“We don’t give them high doses of morphine to end their life. We give it to help ease their suffering. Big difference in motivation, same outcome,” one doctor said.
Child said there was an important difference, even if the line was not always clear.
“It is about intent.”
He said it was a small survey and could be skewed by the phrasing of the questions.
However, it did reflect that some doctors were unlawfully involved in assisted dying.
“I’m sure there are cases and examples where doctors have participated because of their belief the euthanasia is part of their duty of care,” he said.
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