No place in pharmacy

摘要

I have advanced terminal cancer and was dismayed to discover a motion requesting that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society provide guidance on physician-assisted suicide has been passed (PJ, 13 June 2009, p726). Gordon Dykes's apparent eager anticipation of the legalisation of assisted suicide was, in my view, unseemly and unprofessional. He may now be encouraged by the Law Lords' ruling that the director of public prosecutions must clarify the criteria he uses in exercising his discretionary powers not to prosecute in certain cases where people have been helped to travel to countries where euthanasia is legal.This will also apply to cases of assisted suicide in Britain, but we should be in no doubt that the law remains unchanged at present and it remains a criminal offence, whether or not a person is prosecuted.