Assisted suicide usually involves a health practitioner prescribing a lethal dose for a person to administer themselves, usually by swallowing a combination of drugs.
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.
Assisted suicide is legal in a handful of jurisdictions globally including Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and a small number of states in the US.
Right To Life UK campaigns against any attempt to legalise assisted suicide, and for the development of palliative care services and end of life care that remove any perceived need for assisted suicide.
BMA consultants vote through motion to ensure they don’t have to be involved with assisted suicide
Senior doctors have voted in favour of a motion calling for the “BMA to ensure that consultants are not expected to be involved in provision of assisted suicide in any way” if it were to become law in the UK. Yesterday, at the British Medical Association (BMA)'s 'UK...
Calls to expand NZ euthanasia law only two years after it was introduced
A woman in New Zealand has called for the country’s euthanasia law to be expanded to those who are not terminally ill, only two years after euthanasia was introduced. Nicole Martin suffers from a rare disease called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and has described her...
Inventor of “suicide machine” reveals three questions device will ask users
The inventor of the suicide capsule has revealed that the device's software will ask three questions of the user before it turns on the power so that the user can press the button to end their own life. Dr Philip Nitschke, founder of the suicide advocacy group Exit...
Scotland: Senior MSPs speak out against assisted suicide bill
A senior Conservative MSP has come out in opposition to making assisted suicide legal in Scotland, citing her concerns about "legislative creep". Earlier this week, Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian and Convenor of Holyrood's Education, Children and Young People Committee,...
Prohibition against “the deliberate killing of a patient” removed from Irish Medical Council ethical guidance
The Irish Medical Council (IMC) has removed a prohibition against "the deliberate killing of a patient" from its most up-to-date guide to professional conduct and ethics. Where the eighth edition, released in 2016, in its section on End of Life Care contains the...
“No dignity” for family of Irish man who died by assisted suicide
The niece of a 59-year-old Irish man who ended his life by assisted suicide in Switzerland has shared the family’s testimony with the Irish parliament’s Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, saying that, when their uncle ended his life, “There was no dignity for our...