Euthanasia and assisted suicide 

Introduction 

Legal position in other countries

Active euthanasia is currently only legal in Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. Under the terms of these countries’ laws, a person’s life may be deliberately ended by their doctor or other health professional.

The person is usually given an overdose of muscle relaxants or sedatives, which cause a coma and then death.

However, euthanasia is only legal:

  • if that person has made an active and voluntary request to end their life, and
  • it is thought they have sufficient mental capacity to make an informed decision regarding their care, and
  • it is agreed that the person is suffering unbearably and there is no prospect for an improvement in their condition

Capacity is the ability to use and understand information to make a decision. For more information, see the Health A-Z topic on Capacity to consent to treatment.

There are a number of countries where the law is less clear, and some forms of assisted suicide and passive euthanasia are legal but active euthanasia is illegal.

For example, some types of assisted suicide and passive euthanasia are legal in Switzerland, Germany, Mexico and the American state of Oregon. 

Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a life to relieve suffering.

For example, a doctor who gave a patient with terminal cancer an overdose of muscle relaxants to end their life would be considered to have committed euthanasia.

Assisted suicide is the act of deliberately providing assistance or encouragement to another person who commits, or attempts to commit, suicide.

For example, if a relative of a person with a terminal illness used an internet site to obtain powerful sedatives, knowing that the person intended to take an overdose of sedatives to kill themselves, they would be assisting suicide.

Legal position

Both euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal under English law.

Depending on the circumstances (see below), euthanasia is regarded as either manslaughter or murder and is punishable by up to life imprisonment. 

Assisted suicide is illegal under the terms of the Suicide Act (1961) and is punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. Attempting to commit suicide in itself is not a criminal act. 

Types of euthanasia

Euthanasia can be classified in a number of different ways, including:

  • active euthanasia, where a person deliberately intervenes to end someone’s life, such as injecting them with sedatives
  • passive euthanasia: where a person causes death by withdrawing or withholding a treatment that is necessary to maintain life, such as withholding antibiotics in someone with pneumonia

Euthanasia can also be classified as:

  • voluntary euthanasia, where a person makes a conscious decision to die and asks for help to do this
  • non-voluntary euthanasia, where a person is unable to give their consent (for example, they are in a coma or are severely brain damaged) and another person takes the decision on their behalf, often because the ill person previously expressed a wish for their life to be ended in those circumstances
  • involuntary euthanasia, where a person is killed against their expressed wishes

Depending on the circumstances, voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia could be regarded as either voluntary manslaughter (where somebody kills another person but circumstances can partly justify why they acted in this way) or murder.

Involuntary euthanasia is almost always regarded as murder.

Last reviewed: 02/09/2010

Next review due: 02/09/2012

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