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Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.
Assisted suicide means a procedure in which people take medications to end their own lives with the help of others, usually medical professionals. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is an end of life measure for a person suffering a painful, terminal illness. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifies under the physician-assisted suicide laws for that location, the physician's assistance is usually limited to writing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs.
The right to die is a concept based on the opinion that human beings are entitled to end their life or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of the right to die is often bestowed with the understanding that a person with a terminal illness, incurable pain, or without the will to continue living should be allowed to end their own life, use assisted suicide, or decline life-prolonging treatment. The question of who, if anyone, may be empowered to make this decision is often the subject of debate.
Voluntary euthanasia is the ending of a person's life at their request in order to relieve them of suffering. Voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have been the focus of intense debate in recent years. Some forms of voluntary euthanasia are legal in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Spain.
The Hemlock Society was an American right-to-die and assisted suicide advocacy organization which existed from 1980 to 2003, who took its name from Conium maculatum, a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family, as a direct reference to the method by which the Athenian philosopher Socrates took his life in 399 BC, as described in Plato's Phaedo.
Dignity in Dying is a United Kingdom nationwide campaigning organisation. It is funded by voluntary contributions from members of the public, and as of December 2010, it claimed to have 25,000 actively subscribing supporters. The organisation declares it is independent of any political, religious or other affiliations, and has the stated primary aim of campaigning for individuals to have greater choice and more control over end-of-life decisions, so as to alleviate any suffering they may be undergoing as they near the end of their life.
The legality of euthanasia varies between countries and territories. Efforts to change government policies on euthanasia of humans in the 20th and 21st centuries have met with limited success in Western countries. Human euthanasia policies have also been developed by a variety of NGOs, most advocacy organisations although medical associations express a range of perspectives, and supporters of palliative care broadly oppose euthanasia.
Suicide tourism, or euthanasia tourism, is the practice of potential suicide candidates travelling to a jurisdiction to die by suicide or assisted suicide which is legal in some jurisdictions, or the practice of travelling to a jurisdiction in order to obtain drugs that can aid in the process of ending one's own life.
Euthanasia became legal in New Zealand when the End of Life Choice Act 2019 took full effect on 7 November 2021. It is illegal to "aid and abet suicide" under Section 179 of the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961. The clauses of this act make it an offence to "incite, procure or counsel" and "aid and abet" someone else to commit suicide, regardless of whether a suicide attempt is made or not. Section 179 covers both coercion to undertake assisted suicide and true suicide, such as that caused by bullying. This will not change under the End of Life Choices Act 2019, which has provisions on coercion of terminally ill people.
Laws regarding euthanasia or assisted suicide in Australia are matters for state and territory governments. As of June 2024 all states and the Australian Capital Territory have passed legislation creating an assisted suicide and euthanasia scheme for eligible individuals. These laws typically refer to the practices as "voluntary assisted dying".
Jean's Way, a book by Derek Humphry, is an account of Humphry's terminally ill wife's planned suicide from suffering. The book is his first on the issue of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Dignified death, death with dignity, dying with dignity or dignity in dying is an ethical concept aimed at avoiding suffering and maintaining control and autonomy in the end-of-life process. In general, it is usually treated as an extension of the concept of dignified life, in which people retain their dignity and freedom until the end of their life.
Jean-Luc Romero is a French politician, writer and NGO leader.
My Death, My Decision (MDMD) is an organisation that campaigns for the legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales. The group was founded in 2009, in order to campaign for a change in the law and advocate on behalf of adults of sound mind, who are either terminally ill or incurably suffering.
YourLastRight.com Limited is an Australian national non-profit organisation which lobbies for law reform to permit voluntary euthanasia in restricted circumstances. In August 2012 the West Australian Voluntary euthanasia Society withdrew from the body claiming funding mismanagement and concern over attempts by YourLastRight CEO Neal Francis to initiate defamation proceedings against Exit International and Dr Philip Nitschke for questioning how YourlastRight was spending the Clem Jones bequest funding.
Jean-René Saulière was a French anarcho-pacifist, individualist anarchist and freethought writer and militant who went under the pseudonym André Arru.
Exit is a not-for-profit, pro-euthanasia organisation based in Scotland that lobbies for and provides information about voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. It has particularly focused on research and publication of works which provide information about suicide methods, including How to Die With Dignity, the first book published on the subject.
The Voluntary Euthanasia Party (VEP) was a minor political party in Australia, founded in early 2013 by Corey McCann to advocate for legislative change to allow voluntary euthanasia in Australia. The party's inception was strongly supported by Dr Philip Nitschke, director of Exit International and Richard Mills, then President of Dying with Dignity NSW.
Christiane Collange was a French journalist and author.
Assisted suicide is the ending of one's own life with the assistance of another. Physician-assisted suicide is medical assistance in helping another person end their own life for the purpose of relieving their suffering, and voluntary euthanasia is the act of ending the life of another, also for the purpose of relieving their suffering. The phrase "assisted dying" is often used instead of physician-assisted suicide by proponents of legalisation and the media when used in the context of a medically assisted suicide for the purpose of relieving suffering. "Assisted dying" is also the phrase used by politicians when bills are proposed in parliament. Assisted suicide is illegal under English law.
References
- ↑ "2 November World Right to Die Day". Archived from the original on 2016-11-09.
- ↑ Stockenström, T. (22 December 2014). "Is Dying a Pro-Choice Issue?". TheHumanist.com.
- ↑ Johnson, L. S. M. (1 March 2011). "The right to die in the minimally conscious state". Journal of Medical Ethics. 37 (3): 175–178. doi:10.1136/jme.2010.038877. JSTOR 23034669. PMID 21084355. S2CID 9594783.
- ↑ "Disability Groups Opposed to Assisted Suicide Laws". Not Dead Yet. 2013-11-08. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
- ↑ Engelhart, K. The Inevitable: Dispatches on The Right to Die, 2021. St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y.
- ↑ Dankwort, J. Collabartion and research imperatives for a growing right-to-die movement. Canadian Journal of Public Health https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-023-00755-8 March 2023
- ↑ Gandsman, A. (2018b). “Old Age Is Cruel”: The Right to Die as an Ethics for Living. Australian Journal of Anthropology, 29, 209–221
