After inserting abortion in France’s constitution, Macron tackles euthanasia
French president Emmanuel Macron has announced that he will back legislation to legalise "aid in dying" for terminally-ill adults. A report last year claimed that most French...
The long march begins: assisted dying in Ireland
Ireland probably has the most explicitly Christian constitution in the world. Its preamble begins: “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority...
California could liberalise conditions for assisted suicide
California’s End of Life Option Act, which regulates assisted suicide, passed in 2015 and became operative on June 9, 2016. Like legislation in other states, California’s...
Canadian father fights to stop autistic daughter from accessing MAID
A Calgary man has won a temporary stay of the euthanasia of his 27-year-old daughter who is suffering from autism. According to a report in CBC...
Euthanasia cases increased by 15% in Belgium in 2023
More than 3,400 Belgians were euthanised in 2023 – a 15% increase over 2022. Statistics released by the Federal Control and Evaluation Commission for Euthanasia reveal that...
Australia’s Northern Territory ponders ‘assisted dying’
The government of Australia’s Northern Territory is surveying residents to assess the scope of a voluntary assisted dying law. All states have already legalised assisted dying, but...
Former Dutch PM and his wife die together in ‘duo euthanasia’
They may have been the most publicised deaths in the history of euthanasia in the Netherlands. A former prime minister of the country and his...
Ecuador’s high court legalizes euthanasia
Ecuador has become the third country in Latin America to permit euthanasia and assisted suicide. Last week its Constitutional Court decreed by a vote of 7...
‘Terminalism’: discrimination against the dying is wrong
Unjust discrimination is a focal point of bioethics discourse. Bioethicists battle sexism, racism, classism, speciesism, ableism, and ageism. Do they really need another ism? Yes,...
Is ‘assisted dying’ really about autonomy?
One of the most puzzling features of assisted dying is the distinction between physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. In the former, the patient administers the...
Doctors of death
In countries where “assisted dying” in some form or other is legal, doctors are forming professional organisations to give guidance about how to help people...
Canada delays euthanasia for people with mental illness
For a second year in a row, Canada’s federal government is going to delay opening euthanasia to people whose only condition is a mental illness....