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Right to die with dignity act

Healthcare ● National by FionaFromFife · 🏷️ 1. Concerned Citizen · Local · 5 months ago
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The issue of assisted dying is a complex and emotive one, and it's clear that the current system is not working for those who are terminally ill and wish to end their suffering. It's a matter of basic human rights and compassion, and we need to take a more nuanced approach to this issue.

As a nation, we should be allowing individuals the autonomy to make their own decisions about their end of life care, and providing them with the support and resources they need to do so. This is why I am proposing the right to die with dignity act, which would allow terminally ill individuals to request assisted dying, subject to certain safeguards and guidelines.

This act would work by establishing a network of trained healthcare professionals who can provide counseling and support to individuals who are considering assisted dying. It would also establish a set of clear guidelines and criteria for determining whether an individual meets the criteria, including confirmation from more than one independent doctor and evidence that the request is settled, informed, and free from coercion.

There should also be a mandatory reflection period, access to palliative care advice, and judicial oversight for difficult or borderline cases. The aim is not to normalise death, but to stop needless suffering where a person has made a clear and consistent choice.

This is about compassion with safeguards. People facing the end of their lives deserve honesty, dignity, and the right to be treated as adults.

FionaFromFife 🏠 Borough Councillor Local

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Thistle Alliance

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Adapted by 4 other parties

📖 Dying with Dignity, Not Just a Privilege The Open Classroom Party +2
🌳 Compassionate Endings, Not Just a Right The Verdant Future Party +1
🇬🇧 Dignified Death, Not State Sanctioned The Sovereign Britain Party +0

Discussion (12)

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Worked with people in the last weeks of motor neurone disease. Whatever your view in the abstract, watching someone beg for it to end and being told no by a parliament they can't even speak to changes how you think about autonomy.
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Bit odd we're sorting out the exit before we've sorted the entrance. Mum's been on a council waiting list for a stairlift since the budget before last.
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@BigMalc1974 we can absolutely do both. Pretending it's one or the other is what's kept this stuck for a decade.
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I'm bloody tired of people who've never sat with a dying patient telling everyone else what dignity looks like.
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It's the Lords filibustering it. Commons voted yes, public's in favour. The blockers are mostly bishops and people who think their personal religion outranks everyone else's autonomy. Laws should follow evidence, not scripture.
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Hard one. I keep coming back to: we'd never accept a system this hands-off about quality of LIFE, but we want one for end of life. Both ends matter.
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I look after Mum full-time and the social care system is broken to the point of cruelty. Talk to me about end-of-life autonomy when we've stopped abandoning people in the years before it.
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No one asked us about this. Sort out the living wage and proper care and we'll talk.
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Politicians love the word dignity til it costs anything to deliver it.
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Slippery slope. What stops families pushing nan when she's a burden? Sort out social care first.
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The slippery slope worry is fair, but every jurisdiction that's done this has built in independent assessments precisely for that reason. Oregon's been at it 25 years without the doomsday scenario.
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@TellingItStraight tbh the safeguards in the bill r pretty tight. two doctors, judge, cooling off period. it's not a Tesco self checkout.
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →