Assisted dying: RCGP shifts position to neither oppose nor support law change

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has shifted its stance of opposing a change in the UK’s law on assisted dying to a position of neither supporting nor opposing change.

At a meeting on 14 March the RCGP’s UK governing council voted to determine what the college’s stance should be on the issue, in view of current legislative proposals around assisted dying in England and Wales, Scotland, and the crown dependencies. The RCGP said that 66 of 70 voting council members were in attendance.

Some 39% of the council voted that the RCGP should oppose assisted dying being legal, while 61% voted that the college should move to a position of neither supporting nor opposing assisted dying being legal. The college said that no one from the council voted that the …