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Patient autonomy and criminal law
Published in Paweł Daniluk, Patient Autonomy and Criminal Law, 2023
However, the so-called indirect active euthanasia, defined as the use of means to relieve suffering (palliative care), e.g., morphine, which may have the effect of shortening the patient's life, is generally regarded as permissible.48 Also, passive euthanasia in the sense of withholding life-sustaining medical treatment (either by not initiating treatment or by terminating it at some point) is not treated as a criminal offence, provided certain conditions are met.49 This kind of euthanasia is generally justified by the patient's will not to be kept alive. Assisting or inciting suicide is legally prohibited only in cases of selfish motives (Art. 115 CC). The law therefore generally allows assisted suicide, for example enabling a person to obtain the necessary lethal pharmaceuticals, which the person wishing to commit suicide then takes without any external assistance. This contrast in legislation between Switzerland and other countries, e.g., the United Kingdom, and the existence of several right-to-die organisations in Switzerland that provide help with any medical, administrative and social procedures related to the assisted suicide,50 has led to a phenomenon described by some as ‘suicide tourism'.51
Basics of Law for Medical Examiners and Medical Examiner Officers
Published in Jason Payne-James, Suzy Lishman, The Medical Examiner Service, 2023
Nigel Callaghan, Gabriel Callaghan
Currently, both assisted suicide and euthanasia are criminal offences in England and Wales, with euthanasia being prosecuted as either murder or manslaughter, although there is political and ethical debate around this at the time of writing. Assisted suicide is helping someone to commit suicide either by providing drugs knowing what they are going to be used for or procuring travel to another jurisdiction for euthanasia. A murder prosecution could occur when someone administers a fatal dose of a drug with the intent of ending a life, despite having the intent of killing the person to end their suffering. It is important to note that withdrawing life support when there is no reasonable prospect of recovery is typically not a criminal offence.
Definitions of suicide and related terms
Published in Lorraine Bell, Helping People Overcome Suicidal Thoughts, Urges and Behaviour, 2021
ASSISTED SUICIDE, also known as assisted dying, is suicide undertaken with the help of another person (often a physician) by providing the individual with the means to end their life or by providing advice on how to do it.
An Autonomy-Based Approach to Justifying Physician-Assisted Death: A Recent Judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2022
Esther Braun, Jakov Gather, Matthé Scholten, Jochen Vollmann
Following intensive societal and parliamentary debates, the German parliament adopted a law criminalizing assisted suicide in 2015. The German Federal Constitutional Court stated in its 2020 judgment that the prohibition of assisted suicide is incompatible with the German constitution. The court declared that the general right of personality enshrined in the German constitution entails a right to a self-determined death, which includes the freedom to take one’s own life and seek assistance from third parties for this purpose. The judgment states that the right to a self-determined death is not limited to people suffering from serious or incurable illnesses or to certain stages of life. The central criterion that persons seeking assisted suicide must fulfill is that their wish must be based “on the free will of the affected person” (Bundesverfassungsgericht 2020, para. 232). A concrete legal framework regulating assisted suicide in Germany is still outstanding.
Meaningful Respect for the Autonomy of Persons with “Completed Life”: An Analysis in Light of Empirical Research
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2022
M. L. Zomers, E. J. van Wijngaarden, J. J. M. van Delden, G. J. M. W. van Thiel
In much of the debate about legalization of assisted suicide for persons with “completed life,” this complexity has not been sufficiently acknowledged. Instead, a “completed life” experience has been presented as clear-cut, and the death wish as well-considered and stable. Based on this simplified view, it might seem a logical step to provide assisted suicide if a person with “completed life” asks for it. But what if this person is lonely yet dependent on other people, has financial problems, and is, therefore, deprived of adequate care and support? Or what if this person non-autonomously decides to end his or her life, i.e., the decision to end one’s life is not a well-considered, voluntary decision made in a mentally competent state? This could, for example, happen if one has mixed feelings about one’s death wish and longs for but has no access good conversations and information to find out what one truly wishes, what possible responses to the death wish could be, and how certain distress can be taken away or needs can be fulfilled to relieve the death wish in other ways than by ending one’s life. Besides, it may be questioned whether one can autonomously decide to end one’s life if one is led by pressure from non-rational bodily and emotional compulsions or if one suffers from mental health problems or decline.
Unjustified Asymmetry: Positive Claims of Conscience and Heartbeat Bills
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2021
I do not think that what I say here entails that positive claims of conscience regarding aid-in-dying should be honored if conscientious refusals are protected. Nor do I think it is a straightforward or easy argument to make. This is because it’s not clear that all the conditions I lay out would be satisfied in the case of aid-in-dying. Consider condition (3*) above, which holds that refraining from the treatment must not be considered an essential part of the health professional’s work. One might make a compelling case that refraining from aid-in-dying is considered an essential part of an HCP’s work. Although members of the AMA remain divided over the issue, according to the AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics Opinion E-5.7, “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks” (AMA 2016). This is in stark contrast with professional statements regarding abortion from the AMA and ACOG.