Legalize Assisted Dying

Assisted dying is becoming a significant topic that concerns people around the world, but it is still banned in the United Kingdom. More and more people justify assisted dying so perhaps it is time to make it legal. It is a process where mentally competent and terminally ill adults, after meeting the legal safeguards, voluntarily decide to take prescribed medication to end their lives (Dignity in Dying, 2013). According to Dignity in Dying (2013), the greater proportion of the public is in support of the legalisation of assisted dying. Eighty percent of the public is in support of assisted dying to be legalised. However, the government is not willing to change the law. They see the illegality of the right to die as a vital issue and that if

The former in countries such as Switzerland, Oregon, and the Netherlands is a legal right for a competent patient, whereas outside of those countries the former is a crime punishable by law (Bossbard, Fischer, and Bar 2002; Gostin, 1993). The only solution to this would be achieved through legal reforms that will clearly set out the rules and boundaries that would govern the process for assisted dying. Evidently, stories of many patients seeking assisted dying are a reflection of the larger society’s struggle with their personal desires to control their health, their lives, and most importantly their dying process (Volker, 2000). Opponents of legalisation of assisted dying argue that such a move would inevitably endanger the disabled and other vulnerable groups. However, a study conducted in Oregon and Netherlands, where assisted dying is a patient’s legal right, the findings disapprove the opponents’ claims. In this case, it was revealed that there was no evidence in support the claim that legalised assisted dying endangered the vulnerable groups of people. (Battin, Van der Heide, Ganzini, Van der Wal, Onwuteaka-Philipsen, 2007). As a matter of fact, those who received assisted dying appeared to have benefited from various social, professional, and economic

These options should also include the right to choose when and how to die for mentally competent adults who are terminally ill (Public.health, 1997; Sloss, 1996). However, this should be done after the patient meets the legal safeguards and takes the medication as prescribed (Dignity in Dying 2013). It has been discovered that variations in individual priorities and values may compel a patient to seek assistance in controlling the circumstances as well as the timing of his or her death (Volker, 2000). However, in 2005, the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill that was proposed in the United Kingdom only focused primarily on the doctors and their roles (Bilsen, Vander Stichele, Mortier and Deliens 2004; Bosshard, Broeckaert, Clark, Materstvedt, Gordijn, and Muller-Busch, 2008). According to this bill, the issue of assisted dying was a case linked to the more specific views of the nurses and doctors versus the general opinion of the larger public. A previous study was conducted by William (2000) concerning patients’ attitudes and views regarding the legality of assisted dying. The results indicated that 73% of the participants sought to legalise assisted dying citing that as adults of a stable mental capacity, they had the right to make that choice if the symptoms and pain became intolerable (Wilson, 2000). It is also argued that