Assisted dying is when a terminally ill, mentally competent adult making the choice of their own free will, and after meeting strict legal safeguards, takes prescribed medication which will end their life
© Dignity in Dying
Assisted dying is when a terminally ill, mentally competent adult making the choice of their own free will, and after meeting strict legal safeguards, takes prescribed medication which will end their life.
Assisted dying is currently illegal in the UK and we are campaigning for a change in the law to allow people who have come to the end of their life and have mental capacity to have the choice of an assisted death. We only campaign for assisted dying. We do not campaign for the legalisation of assisted suicide for people who are not dying, nor do we advocate euthanasia - where a doctor administers the medication directly; under an assisted dying law patients would have to administer the life-ending medication themselves.
What are we working towards?
Assisted dying is legal in the USA in Oregon and Washington states, and we are working to introduce similar legislation in the UK. Assisted dying is sometimes referred to as physician-assisted dying, or doctor-assisted dying.
Disabled people or older people who do not have a terminal illness would not be eligible for assisted dying under the legislation we want to introduce.