Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/pressrelease/?id=10
Published: 19th July 2002
CMF General Secretary Peter Saunders added: 'The Shipman case should further alert us to the dangers of voluntary euthanasia. We need to remember that involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany required only four accelerating factors: favourable public opinion, a handful of willing doctors, economic pressure and no convictions for doctors involved. In most Western countries the first three ingredients are present already. If legislation allowing euthanasia comes into effect, and political and economic interests are brought to bear, the generated momentum will prove overwhelming.'
Shipman was convicted of murder and seemed to derive satisfaction from the power this gave him over patients. But, said Saunders: 'We need to be equally wary of increasing the powers of well-intentioned doctors who believe that killing patients can sometimes be in their patients' 'best interests'.'
'Palliative care in this country is normally of a very high standard, but calls for voluntary euthanasia often accompany publicity surrounding difficult cases. They have sometimes also been encouraged either by the failure of doctors to provide adequate symptom control, or by their insistence on providing inappropriate interventions that neither lengthen life nor improve its quality. This understandably provokes a distrust of doctors by patients who feel that they are being neglected or exploited and the natural reaction is to want to give patients more power over the dying process by allowing voluntary euthanasia.
'But, ironically, legislation allowing voluntary euthanasia would make doctors less accountable, and give them more power. This is because patients generally decide in favour of euthanasia on the basis of information given to them by doctors: information about their diagnosis, prognosis, treatments available and anticipated degree of future suffering.
'If a doctor confidently suggests a certain course of action it can be very difficult for a patient to resist. However it can be very difficult to be certain in these areas. Diagnoses may be mistaken. Prognoses may be wildly misjudged. New treatments, which the doctor is unaware of, may have recently been developed or about to be developed. The doctor may not be up-to-date in symptom control. And some doctors cannot be trusted. The real answer is not euthanasia, but rather to make good palliative care more widely available.
'Even good doctors are human and subject to temptation. Sometimes their own decision-making may be affected, consciously or unconsciously, by their degree of tiredness or the way they feel about the patient. Voluntary euthanasia gives the medical practitioner power that can be too easily abused, and a level of responsibility he should not rightly be entitled to have. Voluntary euthanasia would make the doctor the most dangerous man in the state.
'Shipman was a murderer, let's be clear about that. But the ease by which he was able to kill his patients without being detected should lead us to ensure that we never make killing easier for doctors by allowing voluntary euthanasia in Britain.
Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.
