In recent years, the debate about whether assisted dying (sometimes referred to as assisted suicide or euthanasia) should be legalised revolves around whether people have the free will to decide when they want to end their own life. In 2002 the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalise assisted dying. During 2010, 3,136 people were given a lethal cocktail and could fulfil their personal wishes to end their lives at the time of their choosing. In Switzerland active assisted dying is illegal but passive assisted dying is allowed if there is no ‘self-seeking motives’ by the person who wishes to end their life. In the UK, assisted dying is illegal and is punishable with up to 14 years in prison. Many people in the UK feel like they do not have the power to end their own life as in other countries such as the Netherlands where active assisted dying is legal and Switzerland where only passive assisted dying legal.
This term assisted dying means when a terminally ill, mentally competent adult, making the choice of their own free will and after meeting strict legal safeguards, takes prescribed medication which will end their life. There are different types of assisted dying; active assisted dying which is when a person deliberately helps to end someone’s life by injecting them with a large dose of sedatives. There is also passive assisted dying which is where a person causes death by withdrawing treatment that is necessary to keep someone alive, for example withholding antibiotics from someone with pneumonia.
In the UK the law states that both passive and active assisted dying are illegal under English law. Depending on the circumstances, helping someone to die is regarded as either manslaughter or murder and is punishable by law with maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment. Assisted suicide is illegal under the Suicide Act (1961) and is punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment although attempting to kill yourself is not a criminal act, presumably because those attempting suicide need help not punishment. The reasons for this law include that the state have a duty to look after its citizens and protect their lives.
In 2002 The Netherlands became the first country to legal euthanasia, there are however strict conditions for this although they do allow both passive and active euthanasia. The law states a person may qualify for euthanasia or assisted suicide if the doctor “holds the conviction that the patient’s suffering is lasting and unbearable.” Teenagers 16 to 18 years old may request and receive euthanasia or assisted suicide. A parent or guardian must “have been involved in decision process,” but need not agree or approve.
In Switzerland the law on euthanasia is that active euthanasia is not permitted however the law allows assisted suicide as long as there are no “self-seeking motives” involved. Article 115 of the Swiss Federal Criminal Code states that; “Whoever, from selfish motives, induces another person to commit suicide or aids him in it, shall be confined in the penitentiary for not over five years, or in the prison, provided that the suicide has either been completed or attempted.”
Switzerland has tolerated the creation of organisations such as Dignitas, which provide assisted dying services for a fee. About 300 British citizens have travelled to Zurich to die with the help of the Swiss suicide group Dignitas. The group Dignitas was founded in 1988 it has the moto, ‘to live with dignity – to die with dignity’, they are pro assisted dying. In Dignitas the assisting with dying lies within these laws, they are also one of the only organisations that allow foreigners. The fact that 300 people have travelled to a foreign country to end their lives suggests that they have a strong opinion and feel they want to end their life.
There are many arguments for and against assisted dying, these arguments relate the sense of morality and the law of a country. One argument for assisted dying can be supported by the views put forward by Professor Hart in his book The Concept of Law in 1963. He drew on the work of John Stuart Mill who stated that ‘the only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign’. Professor Hart’s argument implies that as peoples’ morals change then the law should change alongside it to allow people to make their own decisions about their life. In contrast, Lord Delvin, a Judge in the House of Lords, opposed this idea by stating ‘history shows that the loosening of moral bonds is often the first stage of disintegration’. His argument suggests that if we change the law and its morals then the whole of ‘civilised’ society would disintegrate. He argued that the ‘state’ has a duty to intervene to protect the morals of society. The Hart-Devlin debate, as it was referred to, was referring to homosexuality in his discussions but his arguments can be applied to the debate on assisted dying.
Religious groups will take a strong stance against assisted dying and would not agree with it being legalised. Christians, for example, believe that all life is God given and that only ‘God can give and only God can take life’, this means that humans should not take their life into their own hands. The official position is that the Church of England is firmly opposed to assisted dying. However, Desmond Tutu and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, have both argued in favour recently.
In the UK in 2001, Diane Pretty applied to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights to allow her husband to end her life peacefully and with dignity. As Diane suffered from motor-neurone disease which is a terminal condition. Her application involved saying that as the Human Rights Act, article 2 everyone has the ‘right to life’, she argued that her ‘right to life’ also means she has the right to end her life. The House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights rejected her application, saying that a right to life does not include a right to end life.
However, an opposing argument is that people have the right to decide when they end their own life. The Human Rights Act is a UK law passed in 1998 which means that people can defend their rights in UK courts and that public organisations must treat everyone equally, with dignity and respect. In the Human Rights Act, in article two it states that ‘by requiring the police to take reasonable steps to protect an individual’s life if they know or ought to know that there is a real and immediate risk to a person’s life’. This says that the state has a responsibility to look after its people and this leads them to them not being able to allow them to end their own lives.
In the Netherlands it is clear that many people agree with the right that they may end their own lives when they with as about one in 33 people use euthanasia to end their lives, and in 2014 around 6,000 people choose to end their lives in this way. An example of this is Andre Verhoeven who was diagnosed with leukaemia which is a type of cancer of the blood and he was told there was no cure. He became paralysed from the neck down because of complications and he has in a care home unable to look after himself. Andre decided he wished to end his life as he could not live in the state he was in. On a January day in 2013, a GP gave him two injections, one was to sedate him and the other to end his life. In other countries such as the UK and Switzerland, Andre would not been able to end his life as in the UK assisted dying is illegal and in Switzerland the person has to be able to administer the drugs themselves which he would not be able to do as he was paralysed.
In Switzerland the law was changed in 2012 saying that the state ‘must allow assistance for suicide to be provided in their establishments for any resident who makes a request to this effect to an association supporting the right to die with dignity or to the doctor responsible for his or her treatment’. This means that people can now have the right to die in care and residential homes and Dignitas can help people to fur fill their wishes. However, the Swiss government still upholds laws about assisted dying as even though it is legal and can happen it has to be reported. As in 2014 a doctor was fined 525 euros by a Zurich court for not reporting a case of assisted suicide helped by the Dignitas group to the police.
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