Royal College of GPs to give update on formal position on assisted dying
The college undertook a survey asking members whether the position should change.
The UK’s professional membership body for GPs is expected to give an update on its official position on assisted dying.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is currently opposed to a change in the law to legalise assisted dying – a position it adopted in 2005 and has held since.
A majority of the college’s council members voted last year that the college should consult on whether to change that position.
It is possible the college could move to a position of neutrality – neither opposing nor supporting a change in the law.
Speaking at the time of the vote for a consultation – which came a day after a historic vote by MPs in November saw proposed legislation for England and Wales clear its first hurdle in Parliament – the college chairwoman said it is “one of the most contentious and sensitive issues society is grappling with”.
RCGP chairwoman Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: “It is a personal, societal and legislative issue and something GPs will – and do, as previous surveys have shown – have widely differing views about.”
She said it had been “felt by members of the college’s governing council that the process of reviewing the college’s stance on whether assisted dying should be legalised – including any move towards neither opposing nor supporting a change in the law – must be informed by a consultation with members”.
Respondents to the member survey were asked what the college’s position on assisted dying should be and, secondly, what the council should do with that information.
The college’s council – elected representatives of the wider UK college membership – is meeting in private on Friday to discuss the survey result, with a public update expected to be given on the formal position.
The Royal College of Nursing’s governing council voted in 2009 to move to a neutral stance on assisted dying for terminally ill people, while doctors’ union the BMA shifted from a position against assisted dying to one of neutrality in 2021.
A committee of 23 MPs is undertaking line-by-line scrutiny of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill before it returns to the House of Commons – most likely towards the end of April – for further debate and a vote.
