Indignation

..belatedly reading the BMJ from 24 Sept 05, which reminds me how angry I am about the BMA's "neutral" stance on euthanasia. Doctors have a responsibility to take a stand. It is all very well quoting people's experiences of their relatives' deaths, but each bereaved individual has only that to draw on - an intensely personal experience (or at most, a handful of experiences) at the deathbed of someone they love. No matter how strong a lay person's system of religious or ethical beliefs, they simply do not possess enough knowledge of the workings - physiology, pathology, pharmacology etc. of death, and have certainly not seen enough of it (in the setting of home or hospital). In my 6 months as a medical house officer, I saw at least 5 dead or dying people a week; often, I would have to explain things to their families, and help comfort them. I prescribed countless diamorphine infusions and other palliative measures, and have been present both at resuscitations and at discussions of do-not-resuscitate orders. And that's just me as a doctor freshly out of med school. How much richer and more complex must be the understanding of more experienced physicians. And how unspeakably irresponsible of them to abstain from making a public statement for or against euthanasia.