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Issue Description
Euthanasia – compassionately-motivated killing – is illegal in the UK, but is it unethical? Those in favour of euthanasia say that it would allow the terminally ill to die with dignity, and 76% of British people polled felt that such people should be allowed medical assistance to die. However, critics feel that legalising euthanasia would trivialise the social value of the ill and disabled, and vulnerable people would choose suicide to avoid being a burden. This book looks at the ethical debate.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- Euthanasia is against the law in the UK. It is illegal to aid someone to take their life under any circumstances. ‘Assisted suicide’ or voluntary euthanasia can result in a prison sentence of up to 14 years. (page 1)
- 72% of 18- to 24-year-olds polled by Communicate Research agreed that the vulnerable could feel under pressure to opt for suicide if euthanasia were made legal. (page 2)
- There are fears that allowing euthanasia would encourage the practice to become the norm, as it might be easier and cheaper to provide than other forms of end-of-life healthcare. (page 4)
- 73% of those in the over 50 age group polled by YouGov agreed that assisted dying for the terminally ill should be legal, compared with 81% of those aged 30 to 50 and 72% of 18- to 29-year-olds. (page 11)
- 76% of respondents in a YouGov survey either agreed or strongly agreed that terminally ill people should be allowed medical assistance to die. 56% agreed or strongly agreed that those with a non-terminal but incurable illness should also be allowed medical help to die upon request. (page 12)
- A new survey finds British doctors used euthanasia to kill nearly 3,000 patients in 2004. The poll also found that British doctors do not want to see the legalisation of assisted suicide despite a campaign to do that. (page 23)
- The British Medical Association voted in its 2005 annual meeting to drop its resistance to a change in the law on assisted suicide and adopt a stance of neutrality, making it a matter for society to decide. (page 25)
- More than half of GPs have withheld treatment from terminally ill patients knowing it could hasten death, a survey by Pulse magazine suggested. (page 25)
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Ethical Debate
Euthanasia, Your body, your death, your choice?, Euthanasia and assisted suicide, We must help people die with dignity, Answering the euthanasia critics, A dubious distinction, Public opinion on medically assisted dying, What do the public think?, Euthanasia: ‘we should not be made to suffer like this’ , Euthanasia: the legal issues, Legal status of euthanasia around the world, Assisted suicide and disabled people, Fury as euthanasia group puts dignity in new name, Palliative care.
Chapter Two: The Medical Debate
How common is euthanasia?, Euthanasia: a doctor’s viewpoint, Majority of GPs ‘stop treating terminally ill’, Morphine kills pain not patients, Should we legalise euthanasia?, Call for euthanasia legislation, Physician-assisted suicide, Study counters argument against assisted suicide, When premature babies should be allowed to die, Happy end, Treatment for premature babies, Advance decisions, advance statements and living wills, Advance decisions and the Mental Capacity Act, Doctors get right over life or death, Can computers make life-or-death medical decisions?
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
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The Study Guide for: Euthanasia and the Right to Die - Volume 152
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.95
ISBN: 978 1 86168 457 8