Henry Marsh claims that there is a “fanatical clique” of palliative care doctors who “probably have religious objections” to assisted dying (‘The more dangerous the operation, the more I wanted to do it’, 5 October). This is puzzling to us agnostics and atheists in palliative medicine whose objections are based on evidence.
Marsh admitted in a lecture earlier this year that he had never met anyone opposed to assisted dying. Had he done so, he might have understood the irony that there are states where an assisted death is a legal right, but palliative care is not. Growth in Dutch and Belgian palliative care services has stalled since 2012, despite increasing demand. UK services are far more numerous, and yet more than 300 patients a day who need specialist palliative care cannot access it.
Claud Regnard St Oswald’s Hospice, Newcastle upon Tyne, Amy Proffitt Association for Palliative Medicine
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