Considering physician assisted suicide

Introduction

In 2003 Lord Joffe introduced the Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill which sought to permit physician-assisted suicide at the request of a competent adult who was suffering unbearably from a terminal or serious, incurable and progressive illness. The Bill was given a Second Reading but did not proceed.

In 2004 Lord Joffe introduced another Bill, the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which was limited to terminally ill patients and required a discussion with applicants of the option of palliative care. The Bill was given a Second Reading and referred to a Select Committee, chaired by Lord Mackay. The Committee produced its Report in April 2005 (ADTI Report) and the following November Lord Joffe introduced a revised Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill (ADTI Bill).

The ADTI Bill is likely to be debated against the backdrop of the ADTI Report. The evaluation of the ADTI Bill offered in Part II of this publication is therefore preceded in Part I by a consideration of the ADTI Report. As Lord Joffe’s Bill is, moreover, typical of the sort of proposals currently being introduced in various jurisdictions to permit PAS, this publication should appeal to anyone interested in the PAS debate in general.

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