Terminally ill patients should receive medical help to commit suicide if
they want to die, a [UK] government adviser has said.
Martin Green, a social care expert for the Department of Health, said
those who were physically unable to end their own lives were being
deprived of “choice” and “autonomy” in Britain where assisted suicide
remains illegal. He has now called for a change in the law.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said policy should be
decided with either a referendum or a free vote in Parliament.
“If you’re going to give people ‘choice’, it should extend to whether or
not they want to die,” he told the paper. “If people have got the
capacity to make an informed choice then it is my view that they should
be allowed to make the informed choice.”
