The Importance of Assisted Dying

In Britain, and in most parts of the United States, it's actually illegal to assist somebody to kill themselves. It happens here is under the 1961 Suicide Act, you could go to jail for 14 years for manslaughter if you assisted someone to die. The reason we need legislation is the current situation is a clinical, an ethical and legal fudge. And it does actually put patients at risk. Many doctors quite properly exploit the so-called double effect. That's to say you try and control a patient's symptoms, but you know that the means of controlling their symptoms may accelerate their death. For example, if I have serious chest problems and you try and help my distress by giving me diam