The Royal College of Physicians has dropped its opposition to changing the law on assisted dying and taken a neutral stance on the issue.
The college announced its switch to a position of neutrality after a poll of almost 7,000 UK hospital doctors found that 43.4% felt the college should oppose any change in law and 31.6% were in favour of it supporting assisted dying.
The Royal College said its neutral stance best reflected the range of views among its membership and allowed it to remain part of the debate.
“As a college, we have to represent everyone, and we’ve taken a neutral position because the survey shows that best represents our members,” said the RCP’s president, Prof Andrew Goddard. “It is a divisive topic and there are people who feel strongly both ways and it is really hard to come to an agreed position.”
The college took a position of not supporting a change in the law after a survey in 2006, and in 2014 it affirmed its opposition to assisted dying.
The royal colleges representing GPs across the UK and surgeons in England remain opposed to assisted dying, as does the the British Medical Association.
Goddard said members who specialised in palliative care were overwhelmingly opposed to the college supporting a change in the law, while other specialists were more evenly split on the issue. “We acknowledge that [physicians working in] palliative care feel very strongly about this and it’s a particular concern for them,” Goddard said.
When the college conducted the survey in 2014, 24.6% of respondents wanted the college to support a change in the law, compared with 31.6% in the latest poll.
The surveys also asked fellows and members whether they personally supported a change in the law on assisted dying. Those in support increased from 32.3% in 2014 to 40.5% this time, and those opposing it fell from 57.5% to 49.1%. The proportion saying that if the law changed they would be prepared to take part in assisted dying increased from 21.4% to 24.6%.
Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “It is highly significant that the oldest medical college in England has dropped its longstanding opposition to assisted dying in favour of a neutral position. The RCP will now join the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal Society of Medicine and medical associations around the world which have taken a balanced and compassionate stance on this issue.”
Lady Finlay of Llandaff and Lord Carlile of Berriew, who co-chair Living and Dying Well, said only 25% of respondents to the RCP poll said they wanted the college to have a neutral position.
They said: “No one will be surprised by the outcome of this poll, the rules for which were changed to involve a significant departure from those governing previous consultations and which were set, under pressure from campaigners for assisted suicide, in such a way as to produce the result they have.
“In fact, more RCP members and fellows voted for the college to oppose assisted suicide than voted for neutrality. But as a result of the recent arbitrary and politically motivated change in the rules, their views have been ignored.”
Llandaff and Berriew said the college’s change in position did not show a shift in medical opinion on the matter. “In reality, it cannot be regarded as a serious expression of medical opinion and it has damaged the college’s reputation as a professional body,” they said.
Goddard was keen to stress that the debate on assisted dying, though important, had distracted from the more important conversation on the care for dying patients.
“There’s been a huge amount of noise and energy about this, but actually assisted dying is not the big topic. The big topic is dying itself,” he said. “The NHS needs to improve palliative care services and we need to encourage the public to have early conversations about dying.”
