Understanding Gosport

摘要

The events at Gosport need to be seen in context (Editor's Choice, 7 July). A bookon medical ethics published in 1957 gave practical advice on using opiates for euthanasia. More than 20 years later, after whistleblowing by a nurse, the opiate assisted death of an unwanted baby with Down's syndrome was described as within acceptable practice. Newspapers in the 1990s tried to highlight what could have been happening. Anecdotally, many doctors have admitted to occasionally using opiates to ensure a peaceful death, not always forterminally ill people.