![]() This means that as the death is, as it were, a 'side effect' of the medication, the attending physician is not strictly culpable for it. One loophole available in this country is a practice known as 'death by double effect', whereby medics can prescribe painkillers (usually opioids such as morphine), which have the secondary effect of hastening death. The role of the doctor is to help people, and the BMA feels that taking an active part in someone's death does not fit that role." A spokesperson for the BMA told me: "We are strongly opposed to any change in the law. While the Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill is to go to Lords Select Committee, it seems that any change in legislation would be strongly opposed by the British Medical Association (BMA). Of course, in the UK, it is still irrelevant whether you're terminally ill, chronically ill, or just bored. This feeling is echoed by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES), which campaigns for the option of assisted death for "competent adults who are suffering unbearably from an incurable illness" to have the option of choosing medical help to die within strict safeguards. Some mental ailments are every bit as painful as advanced cancer. "I also believe that, in time, this release should be available to protracted, incurable, mental health sufferers. ![]() "I have always maintained that, as well as terminally ill patients, those persons with incurable, chronic and painful diseases such as MS should also be able to choose physician assisted suicide." He goes on: The only drawback with this method is that to enlist a health professional you need to prove you are terminally ill. His subsequent book, Jean's Way, did a lot to bring the issue of euthanasia to worldwide attention. In 1975, he helped his first wife, Jean McKay, to die after the pain of her bone cancer had become unbearable. Humphry is not speaking from a theoretical standpoint. Medically assisted suicide is better than the family being driven to put a plastic bag over the patient's head." When I asked Derek Humphry, former Sunday Times journalist and founder of the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization ( what he'd recommend, he answered, without hesitating: "Undoubtedly an injection of lethal drugs into an arm by a health professional. This prospect may well put a spanner in your death works. Aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring suicide can be punished with a 14 year prison sentence, while assisted dying can lead to charges of murder or manslaughter, even in cases where the person is dying and has requested help. The UK has the most inflexible and restrictive laws on euthanasia in Europe. The patient is easy enough that's you, but fingering the assistant could be more tricky. ![]() So with suicide proving to be an extremely dodgy option, how about euthanasia, more accurately described these days as patientassisted dying. Illegal drugs? The chances of getting a sufficiently pure source are minimal. Even an overdose of prescription drugs is unreliable, as you're quite likely to fall unconscious before actually finishing the entire required dose. Hanging, if the drop is misjudged, can result in severance of the head, not something you'd want your loved ones to stumble across. Remarkably, shooting yourself in the head only has an 80 per cent fatality rate the mere thought of being in that remaining 20 per cent is too grim to countenance. Other classic suicide methods are equally unreliable and gruesome. Geo Stone in his book Suicide and Attempted Suicide Methods and Consequences, points out that this method comes with a massive risk of injury to others, which must surely lower its appeal. For example, the classic gesture of leaping from a great height is, apparently, quite unreliable, at least at heights of less than 150 feet. But that can be immensely tricky, not to mention uncomfortable. You could just stick with the oldfashioned route: death by your own hand. But actually it's only the first of many. You may think that the decision to kill yourself is a pretty final one. Suppose you're not interested in staying alive no matter what, and have no fear of being fried in everlasting torment if you take your own life. Other international suicide helplines can be found at Supposing you, like me, would like to decide when you're going to die.In Australia the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.In the UK and Irish Republic contact Samaritans on 116 123 or email In the US the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-80.If you need support, the following contacts may be helpful. This is an article about euthanasia and assisted suicide.
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