We strongly support the right of people to end their lives when due to persistent chronic suffering or terminal illness they rationally choose to do so. To keep people alive against their will in the face of unending suffering is quite simply inhuman. This is not about suicide. People already have the legal right to end their own lives, although ironically helping someone carry out this legal right is not. The fact however is that clinical guidelines give medical professionals the cover to prescribe doses of painkillers that are clearly incompatible with continued life, yet are nominally to ‘reduce pain’. As a consequence there is an unregulated system where people are currently euthanized without any review, process or consent.
