Advance Directives And The Annual Conference Of The Bma

EDM number 1431 in 1994-95, proposed by Nicholas Winterton on 18/07/1995.

That this House notes that the publication by the British Medical Association Ethics Committee in April of the document Advance Statements About Medical Treatment, which accepts living wills as legally binding, has been met with feelings of anxiety and dismay in many sections of the medical profession; further notes that at the recent BMA Annual Conference a motion was passed declaring the document to have been inadequately discussed at all levels within the profession; expresses disappointment that the opportunity was not given to that conference to debate the many other motions of concern regarding euthanasia and the document including a composite motion tabled by the Agenda Committee for the Conference, which listed a number of anxieties including warnings that legislation might 'limit doctors' freedom to act in the best interests of patients' and that 'general refusal of all treatment is dangerous, open to abuse and incompatible with the ethical practice of medicine'; and trusts that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health will ensure that the Lord Chancellor's Committee considering the Government's response to the flawed Law Commission Report on Mental Incapacity is made aware not only of the motion passed by the BMA Conference, but also of the other motions delegates were not enabled to debate.

This motion has been signed by a total of 19 MPs.