British doctors illegally helped 3,000 patients to die, research reveals

NEARLY 3,000 patients were illegally helped to die by doctors in Britain last year, new research has suggested.

The independent academic report also revealed that an estimated one-third of people who died in the year - 192,000 patients - had their deaths accelerated by doctors using pain relief, the so-called ‘double effect’.

The study by Professor Clive Seale of Brunel University showed just under half of 1% of deaths were assisted by doctors last year, or 2,865 cases.

Prof Seale calculated the figure - amounting to eight patients every day - from an anonymous survey of doctors.

Published in the journal Palliative Medicine, the survey showed 0.16% of the 585,000 deaths in 2004, or 936, were described by doctors as voluntary euthanasia.

A further 0.33%, or 1,929 cases, were described as “ending life without an explicit request from the patient”, which is also known as non-voluntary euthanasia.

Such cases usually involved patients very close to death who had previously indicated their wishes for euthanasia but were unable to give a specific instruction to doctors, said Prof Seale.

Both voluntary and involuntary euthanasia are illegal under British law.

Prof Seale also said almost exactly a third of all deaths, or 191,811 cases, had been accelerated by doctors using pain relief, known medically as ‘alleviation of symptoms with possibly life shortening effect’, or the ‘double effect’.

Prof Seale said: “The rate in Britain is significantly lower than in other countries where this survey has been conducted.

“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.”

Chief executive of pro-euthanasia campaign group the Voluntary Euthanasia Society Deborah Annetts said: “This research proves that some doctors break the law and deliberately help patients die.

“This is all done in secret and denied in public.

“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.”