20 Facts About Assisted suicide

The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide, which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider.

In many jurisdictions, helping a person die by Assisted suicide is a crime.

People who support legalizing physician-assisted suicide want the people who assist in a voluntary death to be exempt from criminal prosecution for manslaughter or similar crimes.

Physician-assisted suicide is legal in some countries, under certain circumstances, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, parts of the United States and parts of Australia.

In most of those states or countries, to qualify for legal assistance, individuals who seek a physician-assisted suicide must meet certain criteria, including: having a terminal illness, proving they are of sound mind, voluntarily and repeatedly expressing their wish to die, and taking the specified, lethal dose by their own hand.

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Some doctors remind that physician-assisted suicide is contrary to the Hippocratic Oath, which is the oath historically taken by physicians.

Physician-assisted suicide is legal in some countries, under certain circumstances, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and parts of the United States and Australia .

Physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in all Australian states: New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland.

Physician-assisted suicide has been legal in the Province of Quebec since 5 June 2014.

In China, assisted suicide is illegal under Articles 232 and 233 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.

The controversy over legalising voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is not as big as in the United States because of the country's "well developed hospice care programme".

Since Assisted suicide itself is legal, assistance or encouragement is not punishable by the usual legal mechanisms dealing with complicity and incitement .

Physician-assisted suicide was formally legalised on 26 February 2020 when Germany's top court removed the prohibition of "professionally assisted suicide".

Physician-assisted suicide is legal under the same conditions as voluntary euthanasia.

Physician-assisted suicide became allowed under the Act of 2001 which states the specific procedures and requirements needed in order to provide such assistance.

In May 2011, Zurich held a referendum that asked voters whether assisted suicide should be prohibited outright; and whether Dignitas and other assisted suicide providers should not admit overseas users.

In Switzerland non-physician-assisted suicide is legal, the assistance mostly being provided by volunteers, whereas in Belgium and the Netherlands, a physician must be present.

In March 2010, the American PBS TV program Frontline showed a documentary called The Suicide Tourist which told the story of Professor Craig Ewert, his family, and Dignitas, and their decision to commit assisted suicide using sodium pentobarbital in Switzerland after he was diagnosed and suffering with ALS .

In 2014, Lord Falconer of Thoroton tabled an Assisted suicide Dying Bill in the House of Lords which passed its Second Reading but ran out of time before the General Election.

Unlike the other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom, Assisted suicide was not illegal in Scotland before 1961 thus no associated offences were created in imitation.