Two of the UK's royal medical colleges today confirmed that they have dropped their opposition to a proposed law that would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients to die.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) have both adopted a neutral stance to the assisted dying for the terminally ill bill, which, if enacted, would give legal protection for doctors assisting patients with voluntary euthanasia.
The private members bill, introduced by Lord Joffe, is currently before the House of Lords select committee. It proposes a lifting of the UK ban on assisted dying to "enable a competent adult who is suffering unbearably as a result of a terminal illness to receive medical assistance to die at his/her own considered and persistent request".
The RCP said it no longer opposed the bill because of amendments introduced, including better safeguards.
Professor Raymond Tallis, chairman of the RCP's committee on ethical issues in medicine, said revisions to the bill narrowed the number of patients it would affect.
He said: "The main reason we shifted our position was because the bill itself has changed quite significantly. There are more safeguards - the requirement of full palliative care has been really spelt out."
The professor added that British law needed to take account of the experience of other countries, such as Holland and Belgium, which have changed their laws to permit assisted dying in different ways.
But he said there were still issues to do with doctor training and patient diagnosis which needed to be cleared up.
The RCGP said more clarity was still needed on the bill. Dr Ivan Cox, the college's spokesman on euthanasia, who gave evidence to the select committee, said: "It is clear that something needs to be done to clear up some of the ethical confusion surrounding end of life issues.
"At this stage we still have major concerns over definitions such as diagnosis and terminality and ask who would carry out these assisted suicides. Significant training resources would have to be provided for doctors to implement such a policy correctly."
The British Medical Association remains opposed to the private members bill.
But the move by the two royal colleges was welcomed by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. A spokesman said: "It is momentous. It shows medical opinion is changing. Doctors are beginning to look at issues more carefully and consider them on their merits. I think a lot of doctors do support the proposals."
