here are just a few European countries that allow some form of assisted dying. Here’s a look at where they are as the UK considers new legislation.
UK lawmakers are set to vote on whether to move forward with new assisted dying legislation on Friday that would allow terminally ill adults to request help to end their lives in England and Wales.
The legislation puts in place multiple safeguards, such as requiring the person to have the capacity to make such a decision, two formal declarations of their intent to do so, two doctors’ assessments of eligibility within a week of each other, and approval of a high court judge.
Adults who are expected to die in six months could be eligible and eventually provided with an approved substance that they could self-administer to die.
The draft bill has launched a debate in the country about the safeguards needed to prevent people from being victims of coercion as well as people’s freedom to choose how to die.
In Europe, there are just a few countries that allow assisted dying, and many of them only changed their legislation recently.
What are euthanasia and assisted suicide?
Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a life to relieve suffering, according to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), and assisted suicide is helping someone to end their own life deliberately. Both are illegal in most countries, including the UK.
In the Netherlands, euthanasia is defined as when a “physician administers a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient,” while assisted suicide is when the patient self-administers the drug.
Euthanasia is sometimes separated into “active” and “passive,” with the latter defined as withholding life support to a patient or ending life support. For instance, a 1983 California court case determined that physicians who withheld life support to a patient with the consent of the family could not be charged with murder.
The Netherlands’ government specifies that “palliative sedation” is not a form of euthanasia. Instead, the patient is “rendered unconscious with pain-reducing drugs and eventually dies from natural causes”.
The new UK legislation would define assisted dying as when a terminally ill person who has a clear and informed wish to end their life without being coerced into doing so, requests assistance to end their life.
Where was euthanasia first decriminalised in Europe?
The first country in the world to decriminalise euthanasia was the Netherlands in 2002, with the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act.
The law provides six criteria for physician-assisted suicide: that the patient’s request is voluntary; their suffering is unbearable and will not improve; the patient is informed of their prognosis; the physician and patient have determined there is no “reasonable alternative”; another physician has been consulted; and the physician has “exercised due medical care and attention” in ending the patient’s life.
Doctors are not required to carry out euthanasia, and patients do not have a right to it, the government specifies.
Minors can request euthanasia from the age of 12 with a parent or guardian’s consent needed until they are 16, according to the Dutch government.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, assisted suicide is only punishable if the person helping someone die is acting for self-serving reasons. This has been the case since the penal code entered into force in 1942.
What EU countries have decriminalised euthanasia or assisted dying?
Other European countries that allow assisted dying include Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Austria, and Portugal.
Belgium decriminalised euthanasia after the Netherlands in 2002, also under specific conditions. The patient must be capable of expressing their will, have no prospect for improvement, and report unbearable suffering.
The request must be voluntary, thoughtful, repeated, and done without external pressure. This was extended to minors in 2014.
Luxembourg decriminalised euthanasia or assisted suicide in 2009 while Spain passed a law allowing both in 2021 for those with unbearable suffering.
Portugal’s parliament passed a bill allowing euthanasia in 2023 after a long debate and following a veto from the country’s president.
Germany’s federal constitutional court ruled in 2020 that a law criminalising assisted suicide services was unconstitutional, stating that legislators needed to “ensure that sufficient space remains for the individual to exercise their right to a self-determined death and to pursue and carry out the decision to end their life on their own terms”.
Austria’s law changed in 2022 following a court ruling that prohibiting assisted suicide violated the right to self-determination.
Other European countries have had recent debates about assisted dying, including France, which is set to continue debating assisted dying legislation that includes more palliative care support in January 2025.
A special committee in Ireland also recommended that the government “introduce legislation allowing for assisted dying”. Members of the Irish parliament voted to take note of the report in October 2024 but have not yet introduced new legislation.
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