Suicide drugs could be made available over the counter if euthanasia laws are changed

[mia]

By Laura Roberts 7:30AM BST 05 May 2011
Changing the law could make it possible for nurses and chemists to prescribe medication to sick and disabled patients which would enable them to kill themselves, according to a report by Lord Carlile and Baroness Finlay.

In the paper commissioned by the pressure group Living and Dying Well they also warned that liberalising euthanasia regulations could lead to state agencies being set up to decide whether or not people should be helped to die....

Their analysis warned that desperate patients and their families could resort to “doctor shopping” in a bid to find a GP to help them die....

Although assisting a suicide carries a prison sentence of 14 years in Britain more than 150 Britons have travelled to Zurich to die in the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland in order to protect family members and friends from being charged with a crime.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8494012/Suicide-drugs-could-be-made-available-over-the-counter-if-euthanasia-laws-are-changed.html


With health care becoming less and less available - except to the very wealthy, I imagine that many more people will see euthanasia as the only way out.