‘Assisted Dying’ Bill Second Reading

The second reading of the ‘Assisted Dying’ Bill is forthcoming on 22nd October 2021 in the House of Lords. The Bill seems to license doctors to enable terminally ill adult patients, under certain conditions, to end their own lives by the provision of lethal drugs (physician-assisted suicide).

Below we provide links to some articles and resources pertinent to this debate.

The Centre Director, Prof. David Albert Jones, gives eight significant reasons not to legalise physician assisted suicide in David Albert Jones, ‘Eight Reasons not to Legalise Physician Assisted Suicide’, 2015.

Other articles of interest:

• Luke Gormally, ‘Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Seven Reasons Why They Should Not Be Legalised’, 1997

• David Albert Jones and David Paton, ‘How does legalisation of physician assisted suicide affect rates of suicide?’, Southern Medical Journal 180. No. 10 (2015)

• Helen Watt, ‘The Case Against Assisted Dying’

• ‘End-of-life care and the right to die’ (with M.Donnelly), Survival and the citizen: Micro-dialogues on key challenges No. 1., Royal Irish Academy, 2018

The Anscombe Bioethics Centre has also produced an annotated bibliography of resources, with links to articles, including some that are open access:

• David Albert Jones, ‘Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Guide to the Evidence’, 2015

Related Issues:

• Michael Wee, Coronavirus and the misuse of ‘do not resuscitate’ orders, The Spectator, 6 May 2020

• Luke Gormally, ‘Human Dignity and Respect for the Elderly’, 1998

• David Albert Jones, ‘Human Dignity in Healthcare: A Virtue Ethics Approach’, The New Bioethics 21 (2015): 87-97

• Anscombe Bioethics Centre, ‘The Ethics of Care of the Dying Person’, 2013

• David P. Sulmasy, ‘The Varieties of Human Dignity: A Logical and Conceptual Analysis’, 2012

• Dr Mark Komrad MD explains why psychiatrists should oppose euthanasia for their patients

• Dr Benoit Beuselinck draws attention to lessons to be learned from Belgium

Finally, see our resources section for the full complement of the Centre’s essays and articles on euthanasia.