Ireland’s medical council gears up for legal assisted dying
In March, a committee of Ireland’s parliament recommended that “the Government introduce legislation allowing forassisted dying”. If this is approved, Irish doctors will be ready...
UK parliament report on ‘assisted dying’ refuses to take sides
A long-anticipated report from the British Parliament on “assisted dying” has not made any dramatic recommendations, to the dismay of supporters and relief of opponents. The inquiry...
UK lords spar over assisted dying
The United Kingdom is again debating legislation for assisted dying. In late March peers from the House of Lords gave powerful speeches on both sides...
A lonely euthanasia death on Vancouver Island
In assisted dying, it would be unethical to carry out clinical trials. How could you design an experiment in which one person received counselling and...
House of Lords votes down another assisted dying proposal
This week the House of Lords in the UK voted down an unusual amendment to a Health and Care Bill and killed the latest initiative...
After five years, is Canada’s ‘medical aid in dying’ legislation working?
Canada legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2016, five years ago. Both supporters and critics of “medical aid in dying”, as the Canadians call it,...
Italian euthanasia referendum sunk by Constitutional Court
The Italian Constitutional Court blocked a proposal for a national referendum on the right to die this week. The leading lobby group, Associazione Luca...
‘Quick and painless death’: easier said than done
‘Quick and painless’ is a great slogan but it’s hard to achieve.
Protracted ‘assisted dying’ in Colorado
Assisted dying was not the kind of farewell that she had imagined for her husband. She felt “numb, in shock, stressed.”
Can ‘assisted dying’ ever be fully autonomous?
Respect for autonomy, even more than fear of pain, is the fundamental reason why the argument for “assisted dying” has been so powerful. But will...
Next cab off the ‘assisted dying’ rank: Austria
The Federal Chancery has sent a draft law to the nation’s parliament. It appears that the government has no other option, constitutionally speaking.
BMJ champions ‘assisted dying’
The editors of the BMJ recently put the prestige of their publication squarely behind “voluntary assisted dying”. In a long editorial with 30 footnotes, “Assisted...