Doctors 'help' eight patients die a day

Nearly 3,000 patients were illegally helped to die by doctors in the UK in 2004, new research has suggested.

The study also revealed that an estimated one third of people who died in the year - 192,000 patients - had their deaths accelerated by doctors using pain relief, the so-called "double effect".

The independent report by Professor Clive Seale of Brunel University showed 2,865 of deaths were assisted by doctors in 2004. His figures were based on an anonymous survey of doctors.

Published in the journal Palliative Medicine, the survey showed 936 were described by doctors as voluntary euthanasia.

A further 1,929 cases, were described as "ending life without an explicit request from the patient", which is also known as non-voluntary euthanasia.

Such cases usually involved patients close to death who had previously indicated their wishes for euthanasia but were unable to give a specific instruction to doctors, said Prof Seale.

Third of UK deaths 'accelerated'

Both voluntary and involuntary euthanasia are illegal under British law.

Prof Seale also said almost exactly a third of all deaths, or 191,811 cases, had been accelerated by doctors using pain relief, known medically as "alleviation of symptoms with possibly life shortening effect", or the "double effect".

Prof Seale said: "British doctors are somewhat less willing to break the law and engage in these acts than doctors in other countries. In general there is a culture of palliative care."

In all, 857 GPs and hospital specialists responded to the anonymous survey - the national figures were worked out from if their practices apply across the medical profession.

Chief executive of pro-euthanasia campaign group the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, Deborah Annetts, said: "This research proves that some doctors break the law and deliberately help patients die.

"This is all done in secret and denied in public.

"Some of these doctors are acting compassionately on their patients' wishes, but some clearly act without consent. This cannot be safe."

She added: "With eight cases of euthanasia by doctors every day and yet not a single prosecution the Government now has proof that the current law doesn't protect people or give patients the choice they want.

Last year the British Medical Association voted to drop its resistance to a change in the law on assisted suicide and take a neutral stance, to allow for a wider debate in society.