A former professor of medical ethics has called for all forms of euthanasia to be legalised.
Len Doyal, ex-member of the British Medical Association ethics committee, said doctor-assisted deaths did take place and should be better regulated.
He said the law should be changed to enable doctors to withdraw treatment without patients' consent.
But other experts said patients should make a living will if they do not want to be resuscitated.
Professor Doyal said that when doctors withdraw life-sustaining treatment from severely incompetent patients, such as those in a permanent vegetative state (PVS), it was effectively euthanasia, the Clinical Ethics journal reported.
Lord Joffe's Euthanasia Bill which was debated in the House of Lords in May would give doctors the right to prescribe drugs that a terminally ill patient in severe pain could use to end their own life - known as assisted dying.
Patient organisation Dignity in Dying welcomed Professor Doyal's thoughts in the case of competent patients but said that the law did not need to be changed for non-competent patients.
The British Medical Association (BMA) dropped it's opposition to assisted dying in July voting to adopt a neutral stance on the issue.
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- 15/05/2006: Right to die - Lords vote against bill which advocates assisted dying
- 30/01/2006: Right to treatment - 'champions' to have say over treatment
- 10/10/2005: Right-to-die debated in House of Lords
- 01/07/2005: BMA rules on right to life - right to die
- 06/06/2005: Ethics expert calls for guidelines over resuscitation of premature babies
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