annual discourse 2006

Physician-assisted suicide

Baroness Ilora Finlay, a palliative care expert, visited BSMS in November to speak about physician-assisted suicide.

She noted that an accurate initial diagnosis and attention to detail when caring for a patient can do much to improve their quality of life, and discussed palliative care options in different circumstances. She described the role of palliative care in improving reality and setting realistic aspirations, thereby narrowing the quality of life deficit.

Analysing the recent Assisted Dying for the terminally ill bill, she called the term assisted dying ‘a deception to sanitise the killing’. She assessed the situation in Switzerland, Oregon and Holland and made several arguments against assisted suicide, concluding that ‘the UK cannot send a message to developing countries that the only treatment for suffering is to kill the sufferer’.

Baroness Finlay has worked with Marie Curie Cancer Care since 1987, published and lectured widely on palliative care and conducted research into aspects of cancer palliative care.

She was Vice Dean in the School of Medicine at Cardiff University, where she established the internationally renowned Certificate Diploma/MSc distance learning courses in palliative care. She is now President Elect at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Since her elevation to a peerage in 2001, she has been actively involved in debates on health issues. She is a member of the Expert Advisory Committee on Cancers, the Select Committees on Science and Technology, and the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.