Category Archives: Assisted dying

UK membership of Dignitas soars by 24% as assisted dying in Scotland moves closer

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Bill being laid before Scottish parliament could, if approved, allow people in Britain to take their own lives within the law

UK membership of Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying association, has jumped to 1,900 people – a 24% rise during 2023 – as an assisted dying bill is laid before the Scottish parliament.

People from the UK now make up the second largest group who have signed up to the organisation, which is based near Zurich and helps people take their own lives. The largest group is currently Germans, although they can now get help to end their lives at home after a 2020 court ruling.

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Jersey to debate allowing assisted dying for terminally ill

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Proposals deter ‘death tourism’ by requiring applicants to have lived on the island for at least 12 months

Jersey could legalise assisted dying for people who are terminally ill or have an incurable condition with unbearable suffering under proposals to be debated in the island’s parliament.

The proposals, published on Friday, may lead to Jersey becoming the first jurisdiction in the British Isles to allow assisted dying.

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Canadian man says daughter, 27, lacks ability to fully consent to assisted death

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Father calls on judge to block medically assisted death in case that highlights limits on family members’ ability to intervene

A Canadian man has called on a judge to block his 27-year-old daughter’s medically assisted death, arguing she lacks the ability to fully consent to the procedure in a case that highlights the limits on family members’ ability to intervene when a person has decided to die.

The Alberta woman – known as MV due to a publication ban – was set to die on 1 February after receiving approval from two doctors. But her father, WV, successfully applied for an injunction, arguing that she has an undiagnosed mental illness that prevents her from fully consenting to the procedure.

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Assisted dying law may soon diverge across British Isles, MPs warn

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Parliamentary inquiry highlights likelihood of Scotland, Jersey or Isle of Man passing new laws

Laws to allow assisted dying may pass in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man in the next few years, leading to a divergence between different parts of the UK and British Isles, MPs have warned.

The government must consider the repercussions of this, a parliamentary inquiry into assisted dying has said.

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Canada’s assisted dying laws in spotlight as expansion paused again

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Canada has one of the highest rates of euthanasia in the world, with 4.1% of deaths aided by doctors, but moves to make it more accessible are being questioned

When Canada’s justice minister announced plans to legalise medically assisted dying nearly a decade ago, she acknowledged the proposed law might prove divisive. “For some, medical assistance in dying will be troubling,” Jody Wilson-Raybould told reporters in 2016. “For others, this legislation will not go far enough.”

A fresh delay in expanding the scope of who can access a medically assisted death has once again put a spotlight on the system, which critics and advocates agree is one of the most liberal in the world. But the two groups remain sharply divided on what that means for improving the quality of life – and death – in the country.

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Woman found father dead after he took assisted dying drugs meant for someone else, Queensland inquest hears

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Man aged in his 80s kept the substance in his home after it was no longer required for another person, coroner told

A man who took a voluntary assisted dying substance intended for someone else was found dead at home by his adult daughter, an inquest has heard.

“I thought he was asleep in the chair. I put my arms around him. He was cold,” the woman said.

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Ban on doctors raising voluntary assisted dying with ill patients to remain as Victoria reviews law

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Advocates lament missed opportunity for reform, saying some safeguards have become barriers

Allowing doctors to start conversations with terminally ill patients about voluntary assisted dying will not be considered under a review of Victoria’s euthanasia laws – sparking criticism from advocates who say it is a missed opportunity for reform.

A five-year review of the dying laws is open for public submissions and will consider issues including access to the scheme and safeguards. Advocates say Victoria – which in 2017 became the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise VAD – is now lagging behind other jurisdictions.

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Two former health secretaries join calls for new law on assisted dying

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Senior Conservative and Labour figures said they would back changes to legislation on the issue in England and Wales

Two former health secretaries on Saturday night became the latest senior figures to join the growing demands for a new attempt to legalise assisted dying, as a prominent Tory said he is willing to champion the legislation in parliament.

With both former Conservative minister Stephen Dorrell and Labour’s Alan Milburn stating they back changing the law in England and Wales, the Observer understands that a Labour government would make time and expert advice available for an assisted dying bill should MPs back it in a free House of Commons vote.

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‘What is it about life that’s sacred?’: Harriet Walter backs change in law on assisted dying

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The actor, who has played characters on both sides of the debate, says the UK needs a conversation about euthanasia and assisted suicide

About a decade ago, Dame Harriet Walter, the 73-year-old star of stage and screen, decided to make a living will. The will, also known as an advance decision, informs family, carers and doctors of a person’s wish to refuse specific treatments should they become too ill to communicate those choices. (It stops short of requesting help with end of life; euthanasia and assisted suicide remain illegal in the UK.) But, when it came to actually completing the details of her living will, Walter always found something else to do.

“I had the will sitting in my filing cabinet for about three or four years before I got round to it,” says Walter, who made her name in the theatre but has recently had eye-catching roles in the TV shows Succession, Killing Eve and Ted Lasso. “It’s not something you really want to look at, it’s not something you want to think about. But it will be good to know that there’s something in place that you could use when the time comes. Then you close that filing cabinet.”

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Esther Rantzen ‘considering assisted dying’ if cancer treatment fails

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Broadcaster, 83, is waiting to hear result of ‘miracle drug’ and says she wants UK law to let the terminally ill choose how they die

The ChildLine founder and broadcaster Esther Rantzen has said she has considered the option of assisted dying if her ongoing lung cancer treatment does not improve her condition.

The 83-year-old revealed that her cancer had progressed to stage four in May and she has since joined the Swiss organisation Dignitas, which offers physician-assisted suicide to members with terminal illness or severe physical or mental illness.

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Canada police charge man with 14 counts of murder for mailing poison

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Police say Kenneth Law, 58, sent at least 1,200 packages containing lethal substances to addresses in more than 40 countries

A Canadian man who allegedly helped more than a dozen young people across the province of Ontario kill themselves by mailing them poison has been charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder, police said on Tuesday.

Kenneth Law, 58, had previously been charged with 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide.

In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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‘Nobody speaks about this’: Diana Rigg made impassioned plea for assisted dying law before death

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In a recording in 2020, the actor made a case for giving ‘human beings true agency over their bodies at the end of life’

• Read more: ‘Push me over the edge’ – Diana Rigg’s daughter Rachael Stirling writes about her mother’s dying wishes

Diana Rigg made an impassioned case to legalise assisted dying in a message recorded shortly before her “truly awful” and “dehumanising” death from cancer three years ago.

The actor’s statement calling for a law that gives “human beings true agency over their own bodies at the end of life”, published today in the Observer, adds to the ongoing debate on assisted dying, with MPs expected to publish recommendations to the government within weeks.

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Telehealth consultations for voluntary assisted dying are illegal under Australian law, court finds

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Federal court rules that the definition of ‘suicide’ under criminal law applies to VAD

Telehealth consultations about voluntary assisted dying are illegal, the federal court has ruled in a judgment on an aspect of law that has long been considered a grey area.

The ruling means doctors might face criminal charges for conducting such consultations, as sections of the Commonwealth Criminal Code make it an offence to use a carriage service such as a telephone, videoconference call, or email to counsel or incite someone to suicide.

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Majority of Scottish voters support assisted dying bill, poll reports

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YouGov finds 77% in favour of proposal to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives

A large majority of Scottish voters support proposals to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives, according to a poll released by campaigners for assisted dying laws.

A new bill to legalise assisted dying in Scotland is due to be published by the Scottish parliament later this year, in a fresh attempt by its supporters to get the measure enacted for the first time in the UK.

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Two-thirds of Britons support legalising assisted dying, poll shows

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Exclusive: MPs looking at how to respond to calls for UK to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults to end their lives

More people believe it is acceptable to break the law to help a friend or loved who wants to die than believe it is wrong, a snapshot of UK public opinion on assisted dying has revealed.

The finding comes as MPs weigh possible changes to laws governing end-of-life decisions and as a terminally ill Lancashire woman who is preparing to travel to Switzerland to end her life has described the UK law against assisted dying as “cruel and anachronistic”.

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Briton tells Cyprus court wife begged him to end her cancer pain

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David Hunter, who denies premeditated murder, tells trial his wife Janice’s life had become unbearable

A euthanasia case that has gripped Cyprus for more than a year has entered its final phase as a British pensioner accused of murdering his cancer-stricken wife told how she “begged” him to end the excruciating pain that made her life unbearable.

David Hunter had waited a long time to have his day in court and in electrifying evidence before a three-member tribunal in Paphos on Monday, the 76-year-old described the circumstances that he said led him in the run-up to Christmas 2021 to fatally smother his wife, Janice, his teenage sweetheart and the woman he had loved for more than half a century.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Portuguese parliament legalises euthanasia after long battle

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Decision to allow medically assisted dying has divided the deeply Catholic country

After a long battle, Portugal passed a law on Friday legalising euthanasia for people in great suffering and with incurable diseases, joining just a handful of countries around the world.

The issue has divided the deeply Catholic country and was strongly opposed by conservative president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a devout churchgoer.

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UK among most liberal countries on divorce and abortion, survey reveals

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Global study shows significant shift in UK attitudes on matters such as casual sex and assisted dying

The UK has overtaken Canada, Germany and Australia to become one of the world’s most socially liberal nations towards divorce and abortion, the latest wave of a global study has revealed.

Significant increases in the last five years in people saying the practices are justifiable is mirrored by sharply increasing acceptance of homosexuality, casual sex and prostitution over the same period, the World Values Survey found.

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Canada delays right to physician-assisted death for mentally ill people

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Clinicians say there is concern that the country’s healthcare system is inadequate to protect most vulnerable

Canada is delaying plans which would allow people with mental illness to access medically assisted death amid concern from some clinicians that the healthcare system is not prepared to handle the complicated cases.

Starting March 2023, Canada is expected to become one of the few countries in the world to allow physician-assisted death for chronic mental disorders.

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Australia news live: interest rates tipped to rise next week; airport strike planned for next Friday called off

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Speaking on a panel of central bankers on Friday, Philip Lowe said it was possible to execute a soft landing for the economy. Follow live

Rishworth defends superannuation stance

There are still calls on the government to add superannuation payments to paid parental leave. Rishworth is asked if it’s something the government is committed to looking at in this term of parliament:

We’ve set up the women’s economic equality taskforce to look at a range of issues. Along with our childcare changes and our paid parental leave, we have really put women’s economic participation front and centre of this government, as a priority.

I think this is disingenuous by the opposition leader, there is plenty of detail of what a model would look like.

His party is clearly divided. He needs to be a leader when it comes to this.

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