The General Medical Council, which regulates medical practice in the UK, has published guidance for the Investigation Committee and for case examiners considering allegations about a doctor’s involvement in encouraging or assisting suicide.
This guidance makes clear that encouraging or assisting another person’s suicide is a criminal offence in Britain.
It also draws attention to the GMC’s duty to act in the public interest, which it defines as: protecting patients; maintaining public confidence in the medical profession; and declaring and upholding proper standards of conduct and behaviour.
Having observed that “it is difficult to lay down hard and fast rules”, the guidance lists a number of situations which might (or might not) raise questions as to a doctor’s fitness to practice.
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