Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
The thing is the courts rule that assisted suicide is illegal. There isn't a defence that it was the wishes of the individual in question. Even the people who have brought the cases to the high court, who have a clear will to end their life, are not granted it. This is because that is the law, the court doesn't have the scope to go on a case-by-case basis, they must enact the law.
Hence why I think a debate is needed because it's my view that we may need to allow people to end their suffering. This can only be changed by Parliament. Having the debate and if some change is proposed a free-vote would be a good idea.
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And time and again in this thread there are examples of prosecution being deemed not in the public interest or suspended sentence being appropriate, the balance imho is right
---------- Post added at 20:32 ---------- Previous post was at 20:30 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by danielf
Well, all I can say is that despite reading Dutch media on a daily basis, I don't recall any controversial cases of euthanasia, which suggests that there is no wide-spread abuse of the system. As for the Dignitas case, it would appear that the Swiss rules have been flouted, which clearly is unacceptable. If that story is true, the I would hope that the guilty party faces a stiff penalty. However, I don't think that an isolated case of abuse should be reason to deprive people of the right of decide their own fate, and I do belief that it is possible to build enough safeguards into the system to ensure that vulnerable people don't fall victim to it.
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It was a long time ago now and actually led to a change in Dutch law and whilst you're right abuse isn't widespread now it could be in the future, best not to open that can of worms imo
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...s-1425973.html