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.
Victoria, Australia: Major expansion of euthanasia and assisted suicide only six years after law introduced
Just six years after the law came into effect in June 2019, the assisted suicide and euthanasia programme in Victoria, Australia, has been significantly expanded. The raft of changes made by the Government of Victoria, Australia, includes increasing the prognosis...
Man whose life was ended by euthanasia has his heart harvested and transplanted
The heart of a 38-year-old man whose life was ended by euthanasia in Canada has been successfully harvested and transplanted into a 59-year-old American, amid concerns that organ donation creates pressure to end one's life. The American man, who was dying from heart...
Lady seeking financial advice told how easy it is to access assisted suicide
A lady who wrote to a financial advice column detailing her financial struggles in accessing healthcare has been told about how easy it is to access assisted suicide, which would mean she “wouldn’t need to worry”. Writing to MarketWatch’s financial advice column, a...
Australia: Northern Territory recommended assisted suicide and euthanasia with no “prognosis timeframe”
A government committee in Australia’s Northern Territory has recommended that the territory legislate to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia without requiring a "prognosis timeframe", for people who wish to end their lives in this way. The Legal and...
Systemic failures and impotent safeguards discovered in British Columbia’s assisted suicide and euthanasia programme
The results of a freedom of information request from an assisted suicide and euthanasia regulator in Canada have revealed systemic failures in its assisted suicide and euthanasia programme, including thousands of paperwork errors and a recommendation that oversight...
Elderly wife allegedly coerced into assisted suicide by “emotionally controlling” husband, says friend
A friend of a British couple who ended their lives at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland has shared her concerns that the husband coerced his wife into ending her life, according to media reports. Ruth Posner, 96, and husband Michael, 97, neither of whom were...