First Do No Harm? Scottish Doctors Are Sounding The Alarm About Assisted Suicide
Euthanasia is a word we usually associate with suffering family pets and out-of-control wild animals. Now, policymakers want it to apply to humans, too.
Medical euthanasia for humans, often branded “assisted suicide,” is quietly making its way around the developed world. New Zealand, Spain, and Canada are the most recent countries to legalize the practice, and other national parliaments are also in the process of weighing legalization in their own countries. In Scotland, a bill proposing to legalize human euthanasia was delayed following “unprecedented response,” with doctors from across the political spectrum saying that “no one should be deprived of life intentionally.” Still, Scottish politicians say they have enough public support that the bill may be viable once reintroduced. Is the world finally waking up to the ethical wrongs of euthanasia? Or will assisted suicide become the norm?