Amongst the latest, and ever-changing, pathways of death and dying, “suicide tourism” presents distinctive ethical, legal and practical challenges. The international media report that citizens from across the world are travelling or seeking to travel to Switzerland, where they hope to be helped to die. In this paper I aim to explore three issues associated with this phenomenon: how to define “suicide tourism” and “assisted suicide tourism”, in which the suicidal individual is helped to travel to take up the option of assisted dying; the (il)legality of assisted suicide tourism, particularly in the English legal system where there has been considerable recent activity; and the ethical dimensions of the practice. I will suggest that the suicide tourist—and specifically any accomplice thereof—risks springing a legal trap, but that there is good reason to prefer a more tolerant policy, premised on compromise and ethical pluralism.
Should those with incurable illnesses be allowed to choose how and when they die? In his Richard Dimbleby lecture, author Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer's disease, makes a plea for a common-sense solution. This is an edited extract of Terry Pratchett's Richard Dimbleby lecture, Shaking Hands With Death, which was broadcast on BBC1 on 1 February
A new campaign by disability rights activists to limit the right to die launches at Westminster on Thursday. The campaign - called Not Dead Yet UK Resistance - will be asking MPs to sign a charter in support of its aims. It says that disabled and terminally ill people should enjoy the same legal protection as everyone else. Those in favour of assisted suicide argue that opposing assisted suicide will condemn terminally-ill people to suffer needlessly. The Not Dead Yet UK's charter includes a commitment to oppose any changes to existing laws which state that assisting a patient to commit suicide is illegal.
Dr Iain Kerr came under fire from Sir Graeme Catto, a former president of the General Medical Council (GMC) which registers UK doctors and now chairman of Dignity in Dying – a group which wants to give the terminally ill the option of killing themselves. Sir Graeme, who lives in Aberdeen, said he disapproved of the help Dr Kerr gave to elderly patients who were intent on suicide. Dr Kerr, who was a GP at Williamwood Medical Centre in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, confessed to supplying sleeping tablets to a couple who wanted to end their lives together. He also revealed he had advised another pensioner how to use anti-depressants he was taking to kill himself and visited the patient while they took effect. Sir Graeme said: "Dignity in Dying is an organisation that is committed to working within the law to change the law. We simply do not condone healthcare professionals from medicine or nursing or any other group taking matters into their own hands. In Iain Kerr's case that is w...
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is to remain opposed to any change in the law on assisted dying, it has been revealed today following one of the most comprehensive consultations of its members. More than 1,700 members responded to the consultation, which was open from 22 May 2013 until 9 October 2013. College members responded either as individuals, or through one of the RCGP Devolved Councils, one of the RCGP Faculties (local branches), or via a College committee or group. The consultation was conducted through a range of methods, including debates at local meetings, online polls and individual correspondence. Today’s Council debate on the issue ended with a resolution to “maintain the College’s position of opposition to a change in the law on assisted dying”. Seventy seven per cent of RCGP members who submitted individual responses to the consultation expressed the opinion that the College should remain opposed to a change in the law to permit assisted dying. In add