BMA must continue to oppose assisted suicide

After the last few years of political discourse in the UK, Guardian readers should, more than ever, be wary of following popular opinion. When I go to the doctor’s, I want an expert opinion. I do not want him or her to abdicate responsibility and ask the general public.

Furthermore, doctors have a responsibility to first do no harm. They have, for millennia, sought to exercise this duty while protecting the weak and vulnerable. There are few more vulnerable than those contemplating death. At times, the trust placed in doctors has been exploited by people with extreme beliefs to do much harm. Even when it may feel uncomfortable, doctors must continue to exercise their Hippocratic duty.

The BMA must remain opposed to assisted suicide (Letters, 25 February) if the medical profession it claims to represent is to have any credibility in safe, caring and trustworthy expertise. It must not allow itself to become a campaign tool for vested interest groups seeking an extreme and dangerous change in the law that has, even very recently, been rejected by parliament.
Dr Matthew Davis
GP, Leicester

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