Jail risk of doctors 'helping suicides'

Nearly half of doctors think colleagues are risking life imprisonment by helping terminally ill patients to die.

A poll of 1,000 UK doctors found 45 per cent thought other medics were aiding the deaths of patients who were suffering unbearable pain.

More than a quarter (27 per cent) said they themselves had been asked by a patient for help to die, according to the Voluntary Euthanasia Society research.

A House of Lords select committee will today hear evidence from the British Medical Association opposing the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.

The Bill would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal medication for the patient to take once it has been established they are competent to make a decision and two medics have agreed they meet the right criteria.