Assisted suicide is the support and immediate aid of another person to cause their own death.
In the United Kingdom, the Suicide Act 1961 legalised the attempt to take one’s own life, but it kept illegal the assistance of another’s death, with a punishment of up to 14 years in prison. Since then, it has become legal in countries such as Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, and has also been introduced in the U.S. states of Montana, Washington, and Oregon. When we look at these countries, we see that palliative care which is given in centres like this Hospice Cincinnati way, and which is a medical specialism designed to relieve pain in people’s final days. is undermined. We also find that vulnerable people can be pressured into assisted death, and that human life is devalued by medical culture and society more largely.
Right To Life campaigns against any attempt to legalise such practices, and for the development of palliative care services and end of life care that remove any perceived need for assisted suicide.
If a person is admitted to hospital and they want to receive to food and fluids, we uphold that right and can offer advice as to how an intervention might be made to attempt to prevent these from being withdrawn against patient wishes with the sole purpose of causing death.
