Assisted dying in people with learning disabilities
Intended for healthcare professionals
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Assisted dying in people with learning disabilities

Irene Tuffrey-Wijne Professor of intellectual disability and palliative care, Kingston University, London

We need to make sure people with learning disabilities are not granted euthanasia requests too easily

What would you do if someone told you their life was so full of suffering that they preferred to die? What if they asked their doctor or even you for help to die? In the UK, assisted dying is not currently a legal possibility, so you may think this question is not relevant to you as a practising nurse. You may think that, even if assisted dying were legalised, surely this would not affect people with a learning disability? But it affects everyone and it is relevant to us all.

Learning Disability Practice. 27, 1, 18-19. doi: 10.7748/ldp.27.1.18.s8

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