VAD Laws around the World

In general, the VAD laws around the world mean that no one can help another person to die, even though suicide, itself, is not a crime.

There is no other example in western law where it is illegal to help someone to do something which is legal.

And it is not just a little bit illegal to help someone to die.

It is very illegal and, in some circumstances, can even attract a life prison sentence.

In places where there are assisted dying laws, the only person who can help a terminally ill person die, is a medical professional (usually a doctor) and only then under very strict (some might say unrealistic) conditions.

Only Switzerland and Germany offer an alternative to this law.

Terminology

Anyone who makes plans for their own death can be said to be planning their ‘suicide’.

However, the term suicide, and even assisted suicide, have become controversial words. Many in the right to die movement have changed their wording to more ‘palatable’ phrases such as voluntary assisted dying (VAD) or medical aid in dying (MAiD).

This shift has occurred at the same time that the word ‘die’ is also often replaced with phrases such as ‘pass’, ‘pass away’ and so on: as if to somehow soften the idea that we are all going to die.

For some right to die advocates, the change in wording has been an attempt to distance themselves – at least semantically – from the reputation that now stalks the term ‘suicide’.

Nevertheless, ending one’s life is nothing if not suicide.

Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) & Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD)

Assisted suicide is now better known as voluntary assisted dying. This is when a doctor prescribes (and sometimes administers) a lethal drug to a patient.

In most countries where VAD is legal, the patient will take a drink of Nembutal (or other lethal combination of drugs) that has been medically-prescribed.

In some cases, other means of administration are accepted, such as the delivery of the lethal drugs intravenously.

Voluntary Euthanasia

The word ‘euthanasia’ comes from the Greek and means ‘good death’.

When a lethal drug is administered to a person by another, with the former’s consent, it is referred to as voluntary euthanasia.

It was voluntary euthanasia that was legal for nine months in Australia in 1996-97.

It is VE that is lawful in the Benelux countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Suicide & Rational Suicide

The authors of this book have been active in the right to die movement for almost 30 years.

During this time, we have witnessed many changes.

One noticeable shift has been the view of suicide as a societal ill.

A person who contemplates suicide has, by definition a (possibly undiagnosed) mental illness. Today, suicide is rarely considered to be a good thing.