No one should be forced to live in pain, misery, or indignity. The voices and experiences of our members and the people we have supported have shaped our opinion of the law. Why include the incurably, intolerably suffering? Healthcare practitioners regularly make evaluations of patients’ pain in many circumstances. Intolerably suffering means suffering from a severe illness or ailment that the individual themselves evaluates to be intolerable. It must be the disease itself that is the primary, underlying cause of the individual’s suffering and not other external factors. The healthcare professional who carries out the assessment must be satisfied that all options and changes to circumstances that could alleviate the suffering have been exhausted. Incurable, physical condition is defined as an illness where there is no cure in the foreseeable future. If a person were to lose their mental capacity the process should not continue. People with mental illnesses would not be eligible under this criteria. If an assessing professional had any doubt about the mental capacity of the individual, the process would stop until a psychiatric evaluation had been carried out. Sound mind is an already defined term that exists under the Mental Capacity Act. We also believe that the choice of assisted dying should not be considered an alternative to palliative care, but should be offered together as in many other countries. We recognise that any assisted dying law must contain strong safeguards, but the international evidence from countries where assisted dying is legal shows that safeguards can be effective. This figure doesn’t account for the many more who wanted this option but could not afford the ~£10,000 costs. We believe that being able to die, with dignity, in a manner of our choosing must be understood a fundamental human right, a position supported by the European Court of Human Rights following Debbie Purdy’s leading case.įamilies are often forced to make an intolerable choice between either letting their loved ones suffer, or supporting them to travel abroad and risking criminal investigation and well over 200 UK citizens have had no option but to die abroad since 2015. We firmly uphold the right to life but we recognise that this right carries with it the right of each individual to make their own judgement about whether their life should be prolonged in the face of pointless suffering. Humanists do not share the attitudes to death and dying held by some religious believers, in particular that the manner and time of death are for a deity to decide, and that interference in the course of nature is unacceptable. Humanists defend the right of each individual to live by their own personal values, and the freedom to make decisions about their own life so long as this does not result in harm to others. In Jersey, a consultation is in progress to examine eligibility criteria, safeguards, and processes after the States Assembly agreed to support assisted dying ‘in principle’.The Isle of Man is consulting on its proposed Assisted Dying Bill.In Scotland, the Assisted Dying Bill will enter the first stage early in 2023, after 36 MSPs backed the move.In the Republic of Ireland, a special Oireachtas committee is examining assisted dying.A draft bill is expected by October 2022. In France, a ‘citizen’s convention’ concluded that assisted dying should be legalised.The inquiry is the latest in a string of activity on assisted dying laws by local jurisdictions: And in 2019 we helped establish the Assisted Dying Coalition, the national coalition working for assisted dying. In recent years we have intervened in support of our members Noel Conway, Omid T, and Paul Lamb and Tony and Jane Nicklinson, throughout their attempts to overhaul the law on assisted dying by taking human rights cases through the courts. We have long supported attempts to legalise assisted dying. We believe that any adult of sound mind who is intolerably suffering from an incurable, physical condition and has a clear and settled wish to die should have the option of an assisted death.
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