Category: Articles

MP Kim Leadbeater to bring new assisted suicide bill

Gordon Macdonald urges MPs to consider new polling, which paints a far more complex picture of public opinion than usually claimed.

European Court: no assisted suicide right

“The Court observed that there were potentially broad social implications and risks of error and abuse involved in the provision of physician-assisted dying.

Quebec expands euthanasia law

Bill 11, approved this week, ushers in advance requests for illnesses like dementia, and curtails hospice conscience rights.

Canada: yes to minors, mental illnesses on hold

Canadian Parliamentarians have recommended that euthanasia be made available to children, two weeks after the Government bowed to pressure and postponed expansion to those with mental illnesses.

Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip

Channel 4 follows television chef and prominent 'assisted dying' advocate Prue Leith on a journey to North America with her MP son, Danny Kruger, Chair of the All-Party Dying Well Group.

Think tank report urges assisted suicide caution

The authors of 'Physician-Assisted Suicide: Improving the Quality of the Debate' include a retired Supreme Court Justice, a former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission a leading barrister

Oregon at 25: new highs, new lows

The assisted suicide law supposedly limited by a six-month prognosis now sees patients outlive this by five years, with individual doctors writing lethal prescriptions on a weekly basis.

It’s consultation season

The Crown Dependencies of Jersey and the Isle of Man are both consulting on legalising assisted suicide (and euthanasia), while the House of Commons Health Committee has also announced an inquiry.

New Manx assisted suicide proposal

Members of the House of Keys grant leave for an assisted suicide bill to be brought forward in the Isle of Man

Government agrees palliative care right

The Government has agreed to amend the Health and Care Bill to make palliative care commissioning a legal requirement across England

Oregon 2021: anorexia, hernias & feeling a burden

The 24th annual report on assisted suicide in Oregon has been framed to ward off difficult questions, but only lays bare how much they don’t know about assisted suicide in practice.

Irish Justice Committee rebuffs bill

TDs and Senators decline to recommend assisted suicide and euthanasia bill with ‘serious flaws’ and potential for ‘unintended policy consequences.’

Holyrood Election 2021: Policies

The 2021 Scottish Elections have seen pledges on both palliative care and assisted suicide – and campaigners have made clear their intent to press the latter in the new Parliament.

Portuguese President sends new law for review

‘Excessively indeterminate’ and subjective criteria see Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa question the constitutionality of a euthanasia bill

UN experts condemn euthanasia for disability

Special rapporteurs argue that legislative provisions for assisted suicide and euthanasia ‘tend to rest on - or draw strength from - ableist assumptions about the inherent “quality of life” or “worth’ of the life of a person with a disability.’

Oregon assisted suicides jump 28%

Total would translate to 3,880 for a UK-sized population

Parliamentary flurry over Dignitas in lockdown

Activist MPs use coronavirus to press for the legalisation of assisted suicide, prompting ‘muddled thinking’ on travel abroad for assisted suicide but also a firm reiteration that the issue is for Parliament, not Government.

NZ vote ‘based on widespread confusion’

Responding to the results of a referendum on euthanasia, campaigners in New Zealand note that polling indicated 'widespread confusion' about how a new law would function.