Centre for Policy on Ageing



Euthanasia in the UK — the real story
Author(s)	Clive Seale, Dawn Powell
Journal title	Geriatric Medicine, vol 36, no 5, May 2006
Pages	pp 17/21
Source	http://www.gerimed.co.uk
Keywords	Euthanasia ; Dying ; Terminal care ; Doctors ; Social surveys.
Annotation	In his survey on end-of-life decisions made by UK doctors, Professor Clive Seale of Brunel University asked doctors to fill in an anonymous questionnaire about whether they or a colleague had committed euthanasia or helped with a patient's suicide. He also asked if they either withdrew or withheld treatment (a "non-treatment decision") or intensified the alleviation of pain or symptoms, knowing that such actions could hasten the end of a patient's life (a "double-effect" decision). Of 857 replies from doctors describing the care of the last patient they attended who died, 0.16% of deaths involved euthanasia at a patient's request ("voluntary" euthanasia), and 0.33% involved ending a patient's life without a concurrent request from the patient to do so. 30% of respondents gave doses of drugs that they thought had a double effect, and 33% had made "non-treatment" decisions. These findings led to media reports that UK doctors are illegally helping 8 patients a day to die. Dawn Powell discusses the survey results with Prof Seale. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-061106210 A
Classmark	CY: CX: LV: QT2: 3F
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.