Around one in four GPs would be prepared to be involved in assisted dying, results of a survey by our sister title Pulse has shown.
The survey of 601 GPs showed that the profession remains divided on the issue, with 37% in support of the Assisted Dying Bill and 39% against, while 24% said they felt neutral about it.
The draft legislation, which would allow terminally ill adults to end their lives, was backed by MPs in a vote in November and has gone through the report stage, with MPs debating amendments and voting on proposed changes at its third reading today (Friday 16 May).
Under the current bill, two doctors would first need to assess the person seeking assisted dying and provide sign-off, but it states that doctors are not under ‘any duty’ to raise assisted dying with patients or to ‘participate in the provision of assistance’ if they do not wish to do so.
Pulse’s poll found that 24% of GPs would be prepared to be involved in assisted dying to its completion, while 56% said they would not want to be involved and 19% that they did not know at this stage.
And 41% also said that if assisted dying is introduced, GPs should be involved in broaching the possibility with palliative care patients.
However, GPs told Pulse that should the legislation go ahead, assisted dying should not be part of core GP workload but be introduced as a separate service, with the RCGP and the BMA both echoing this.
It comes as the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) has said it cannot support the bill in its current form.
Dr Lade Smith CBE, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: ‘After extensive engagement with our members, and with the expertise of our assisted dying/assisted suicide working group, the RCPsych has reached the conclusion that we are not confident in the Terminally Ill Adults Bill in its current form, and we therefore cannot support the Bill as it stands.
‘It’s integral to a psychiatrist’s role to consider how people’s unmet needs affect their desire to live. The Bill, as proposed, does not honour this role, or require other clinicians involved in the process to consider whether someone’s decision to die might change with better support.
‘We are urging MPs to look again at our concerns for this once-in-a-generation Bill and prevent inadequate assisted dying/assisted suicide proposals from becoming law.’
The RCGP moved to a position of ‘neither supporting nor opposing’ assisted dying, after a vote of its council members in March.
RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: ‘This poll shows that GPs have widely differing, deeply personal, and strongly held views about assisted dying.
‘What is clear is that no GP should be obliged to participate in delivering assisted dying services if and when they become legal and there should be a right to refuse to participate on any grounds.
‘We would want to see statutory protections making it unlawful to discriminate against any doctor on the basis of their decision to, or not to, participate in the assisted dying process.
‘Should assisted dying become legal, it is also imperative that palliative care must be strengthened to ensure patients can have the best possible care at or near the end of their lives, without feeling as though assisted dying is their best or only option.’
The BMA has previously reiterated its ‘neutral’ position on the issue of assisted dying, but has emphasised the need for ‘absolute freedom of choice for doctors as to whether they participate or not’.
The survey results
What is your view of the assisted dying bill?
Strongly supportive: 16.06%
Fairly supportive: 21.27%
Neutral: 21.13%
Fairly against: 14.91%
Strongly against: 24.31%
Don’t know: 2.32%
Would you be prepared to be involved in assisted dying to its completion?
Yes: 24.17%
No: 56.73%
Don’t know/would rather not say: 19.10%
If assisted dying is introduced, should the following healthcare professionals/organisations be involved in broaching the possibility in palliative care patients?
GP
Yes: 41.67%
No: 47.66%
Don’t know: 10.67%
Practice or community nurse
Yes: 30.06%
No: 58.93%
Don’t know: 11.01%
Pharmacist
Yes: 6.49%
No: 86.88%
Don’t know: 6.64%
Palliative care team
Yes: 75.66%
No: 19.39%
Don’t know: 4.96%
A new health body
Yes: 35.74%
No: 38.29%
Don’t know: 25.98%
This survey was open between 31 March and 14 April 2025, collating responses using the SurveyMonkey tool. The survey was advertised to our readers via our website and email newsletter, with a prize draw for a £200 John Lewis voucher as an incentive to complete the survey. We asked for GPs’ practice codes or practice names and postcodes, and asked them to confirm what kind of GP they were. We removed those with duplicate email addresses, and searched for duplicate IP addresses, removing obvious duplicate entries. The survey was unweighted, and we do not claim this to be scientific – only a snapshot of the GP population
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
