A Final Plea for "Death With Dignity": A Proposal for the Modification and Approval of the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill in the United Kingdom

Authors

• Lindsay Pfeffer

Abstract

Increasing respect for personal autonomy in health-related decision-making, major alterations in the assisted suicide laws of other European countries (especially Switzerland and the Netherlands), and the rising popularity of Swiss suicide clinics have introduced the need for the British legislature to reevaluate the United Kingdom's stance on assisted suicide and to adjust medical practices to contemporary social needs. The introduction and obstruction of a bill in the House of Lords for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill individuals has provoked opposition from the British medical community and serious concern on behalf of members of the government regarding the future of the nation's end-of-life law. In contrast, general public opinion appears to grow in favor the bill's passage.

The Swiss and Dutch legal regimes provide settings against which the potential change in British medical law can be compared. This Note proposes the implementation of further alterations of the bill to ease concerns about a "slippery slope" and encourages the bill's approval in the House of Lords in a future parliamentary session.

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | Law | Medical Jurisprudence

Recommended Citation

Lindsay Pfeffer, A Final Plea for "Death With Dignity": A Proposal for the Modification and Approval of the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill in the United Kingdom, 15 Cardozo J. Int'l & Comp. L. 497 (2007).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cjicl/vol15/iss2/7