Now I have heard that several continental countries have more liberal laws, where the doctors can actively assist suicide for terminally ill patients (I think the Netherlands being one but correct me if I am wrong).
Is there anything stopping the british patient going to the Netherlands to find a doctor to help her and if she does, would the doctor be liable for murder charges in Britain?
I read something recently on the Netherlands, and their euthanasia thing is only for residents/citizens. You can’t just fly in and fly off to heaven, as it were.
Maybe, but for a British citizen it’s no problem to get resident status in the Netherlands; she’d have unlimited visa automatically, because as an EU citizen, you have the right to live anywhere in the Union.
So it would most likely be possible for her to move to the NL and, well, you know what I mean.
This question was put to Diane Pretty’s representative by a TV reporter. The reply was that this was “not an option” for the family (with no more information reported).
Neither do they intend to appeal, nor will they consider taking action in violation of the law.
In another recent case, a British woman paralysed from the neck down won her right to decline further treatment - she had been on a life-support machine. Her death has just been reported.
(IIRC the charge against her husband would not be murder, it would be “assisting suicide”)
Yes - the critical point about Diane Blood is that she wanted “assisted suicide” not “euthanasia” (eg by a doctor - which isn’t available in the UK yet, legally at least) or “no further treatment” which was the case above. There are quite different legal implications in each case.