|TOP|The Christian social concern charity CARE has greeted the results of the UK-wide study into euthanasia that were released Jan. 19th. The charity said that the findings added further weight to arguments opposing assisted dying legislation.

The study involved 857 medical practitioners and was carried out by Brunel University, looking to explore the decisions taken by doctors and medical professionals when treating terminally ill patients.

The study revealed that there were no requests made to doctors to offer them assisted suicide, where a patient asks the doctor to provide the means to kill themselves.

In 2004 the UK registered 584,791 deaths, and of these just a small proportion - 0.16% - were attributed to voluntary euthanasia, where the patients made a request to the doctor, according to CARE.

|QUOTE|The General Director of CARE, Nola Leach commented that the figures added significant weight to the argument that there was no need for a law to be passed to introduce physician assisted suicide.

Last year a heated debate emerged as pro-euthanasia campaigners pushed forward for the legislation in Lord Joffe’s Bill.

Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which is due its second reading in the House of Lords shortly, would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for patients to take themselves, CARE reported.

|AD|Leach said, “If the proposed Lord Joffe Bill is made law it may only serve to increase the number of assisted suicide cases, which currently stands at nil. Indeed no new evidence has been brought forward which should undermine the work and conclusions of the House of Lords Select Committee on medical ethics. Current legislation provides an effective framework for handling end of life issues.

“The survey also shows that the majority of doctors who responded to the survey are happy with the UK law on euthanasia and the current ban, with only 2.6% of doctors requesting a new law.”

It was also revealed within the survey that euthanasia rates were significantly lower in the UK than other places in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, where other similar studies were carried out.

CARE’s Leach concluded, “Society does have a duty to alleviate suffering, but by killing the pain not the patient.”