Summary
MPs have taken a major step toward legalizing assisted dying in England and Wales by passing the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which allows terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the right to end their lives, pending approval by two doctors and a high court judge.
The bill passed 330-275 but faces further parliamentary hurdles and a two-year implementation period.
Supporters see it as a milestone for personal choice, while opponents raise concerns over coercion, insufficient safeguards, and the ethical implications for healthcare and the state.
I never understood why ending your own life is illegal, in general.
What is the government gonna do if I yeet myself off a cliff…? Throw my corpse in prison?
Nothing, but the lines get blurry if you are not in a position to do this without help. If instead you need someone to push you off the cliff then that is very different legally.
I’m a big proponent of suicide in humane ways. I mean if you really honestly do actually want to die, at least do it in a way that doesn’t irreparably traumatize people around you… including whomever has to clean you off the sidewalk… they don’t need that.
If I have any say in the matter myself, I want to go with neutral gas asphyxiation when my medical state gets too bad to keep existing. Nitrogen would do it, but I’d probably go out with helium. It’s wasteful sure, like balloons, but I’d have a great time on the way out. Build myself a positive pressure chamber for my head and just ride the silly on out. Ideally with friends to silly with me.
Because it’s never if you die, it’s when and how, and if we know how to choose that, what’s honestly wrong with choosing that? I don’t believe in higher powers, just you here now and those you care about… and if you have a valid reason to want to check out, nobody can stop you, but we can make sure we let them go supportively (including just giving those people some damned support first… most people who get assisted suicide meds never take them, they just want the option)
most people who get assisted suicide meds never take them
Many people offered medical suicide and go through with it don’t actually do it for a medical reason. But mostly because medical systems are swamped and they are otherwise poor. This isn’t humane, this is just throwing those people away and hoping they choose the easy option so they don’t drag down the rest of the system. At least how I’ve seen in implemented watching Canada’s case. If you know of a better case of implementation that I should be looking at, I’m all ears.
It’s not illegal in the UK, although it used to be over 60 years ago. But yeah, people who survived the attempt could have gone to prison.
