Assisted dying, assisted suicide, and euthanasia
As parliament prepares to debate the latest assisted dying bill, the debate over assisted dying rages on in the UK. For the anti-euthanasia movement, assisted suicide is unethical and inexcusable, tantamount to murder. Meanwhile for the large numbers who support the right to die – in particular those with terminal illnesses who wish to end their lives on their own terms – legalising assisted dying in the UK is about preserving humanity at the end of life, ensuring that all Britons not just an elite few, can die with dignity.
But what is assisted dying? For many the definition depends on point of view. To help us all better understand what it means, here are some of the most informative resources we’ve found explaining euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering. For example, a doctor who gives a patient with terminal cancer an overdose of muscle relaxants to end their life would be considered to have carried out euthanasia.
There is intense debate in the terms used in euthanasia and there are currently no consensus definitions. However, an attempt has been made here to present the most widely adopted definitions.
Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering. In most cases euthanasia is carried out because the person who dies asks for it, but there are cases called euthanasia where a person can't make such a request.
Dignity in Dying advocate an Assisted Dying Bill for the UK based on the and Washington model, where the dying person takes the life ending medication themselves. It is not comparable to Swiss or Benelux models, which have wider eligibility criteria than terminal illness.
Rob Marris MP's Assisted Dying No. 2 Bill would license physician-assisted suicide in England and Wales. It fails to provide sufficient safeguards to protect people with life-limiting conditions from abuse, coercion or feeling a duty to die for the financial or emotional benefit of others.
"They wouldn't treat an animal like this." It's the common cry of supporters of voluntary euthanasia, appalled that while we are willing to put animals out of their misery without their consent, we won't do the same for humans at their own request. This was also the exact phrase uttered by the 96-year-old father of the former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger as he lay dying a slow, painful death.