[user104658]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

There's the issue... as a rule medical professionals sign up to save lives, they are not in the business of killing people.
I know it's hard I watched my own father get eaten away at by cancer in my mums living room over a period of 3 months in his late 60s.

What individuals do is up to them but a managed decline via pain relief is as dignified as is possible medically, we can't be passing the burden of assisted suicide/dying onto anyone else.

Do they? Many do, sure, but I'd say that amore accurate role of a medical professional is to help people live as comfortably as possible for as long as possible... it's about quality of life, not "living as long as possible". The "rule" is to do no harm, but there's certainly scope for debate over whether or not it's more harmful to help someone to die quickly and painlessly, or to have them endure high levels of suffering for weeks or months only to die anyway.

It doesn't need to be a case of forcing or passing the buck either; it would be fairly simple to allow medical professionals to opt in / out of being involved in euthanasia. I believe that there have been studies showing that 50% or more of doctors are in favour of euthanasia in extreme / end-of-life circumstances.