Groundbreaking independent academic research, conducted anonymously with doctors by Professor Clive Seale, Brunel University, reveals that there were 2,865 patients deliberately helped to die by doctors in 2004. That equates to eight patients every day.
Deborah Annetts, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which replaces the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said: “This research proves that some doctors break the law and deliberately help patients die. This is all done in secret and denied in public. Some of these doctors are acting compassionately on their patients’ wishes, but some clearly act without consent. This cannot be safe.
“We desperately need to put the patient at the centre of these decisions and to make sure doctors are acting within proper safeguards to protect the patient and themselves.”
