Tang Siu-pun, also known as Ah Bun, wrote to the Hong Kong Legislative Council on 15 March 2004 to request euthanasia. His campaign for euthanasia alerted Hong Kong society to his plight and raised awareness of the issues relating to the 'right to die.' This article explains Ah Bun’s request in legal terms, illustrating the differences, controversial as they may be, between the right of a competent patient to have one’s ventilator (or other form of life support) removed, as opposed to euthanasia or assisted suicide. Both assisted suicide and euthanasia are currently illegal and raise many difficult moral and social questions. However, the law recognises, by way of the application of a general legal principle, a more limited right of a competent patient to have a life support machine switched off, even if this would inevitably accelerate, or lead to, death.
The authorities in Britain are due to issue guidance to clarify the law on assisted suicide. As more and more countries in the West are grappling with how to legislate on this difficult issue, the BBC's Vaudine England looks at how assisted suicide and euthanasia are viewed in Asia.