PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION VOTE ON EUTHANASIA (10 July 2005)

That this House welcomes the decision of the Royal College of General Practitioners and Physicians to reject the neutral stand on physician-assisted dying taken by the College when it gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill; notes this resulted from demands by grass roots members who oppose euthanasia; regrets, however, that this was followed by the British Medical Association's (BMA) annual conference passing a motion withdrawing opposition to physician-assisted suicide and adopting a neutral stand; further notes that three motions were presented to the conference opposing euthanasia, supporting a neutral stand on assisted suicide and supporting euthanasia; deplores that these in their final form were presented on the day of the vote when of 304 voting delegates only 175 remained; further notes that none of the BMA divisions throughout the country saw the motions and that of the Association's 11 branches of practice, only one, the Medical Students, had debated the subject; notes that their motion for the annual conference rejected euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide; further notes that the three motions were presented in reverse order allowing votes only on supporting euthanasia (72 votes for and 101 against) and for the Association taking a neutral stand (93 for and 82 against); regrets that no vote was taken on the motion opposing euthanasia; and calls on the Government to reiterate its opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Sponsored by:
Dr Brian Iddon (Labour)