General Article
January 30, 2021
Portugal to Legalise Voluntary Euthanasia
Portugal’s parliament voted on Friday to legalise euthanasia, setting the country up to become the seventh in the world to allow terminally ill patients to seek assistance from a doctor to end their life. “With this vote, parliament added dignity to our democracy,” Left Bloc lawmaker Jose Manuel Pureza said, calling the approval by 136-78 […]
January 4, 2021
New Doxit Podcast – Looking Back/ Looking Forward
Podcast No 17, 3 January 2021 The year that was thanks to COVID-19 but it was not all bad news. Exit’s Doxit Podcast ‘Looking Back Looking Forward’ reflects on the good and the bad to come out of the pandemic experience. For example, like so many organisations around the world, Exit moved our core […]
January 1, 2021
The Exit Bag’s Role in Australian Law Reform
The Exit Bag The Exit Bag’s Role in Australian Law Reform is a little-known story. The use of plastic bags to bring about a peaceful death is not new. Derek Humphry outlines the practice in his book Final Exit, but the use of a specific ‘customised’ bag for the purpose of ending life was first […]
December 21, 2020
Spanish MPs vote in favour of law allowing euthanasia under strict conditions
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s parliament voted Thursday to approve a bill that will allow physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia for long-suffering patients of incurable diseases or unbearable permanent conditions. The bill, which was backed by Spain’s left-wing coalition government and several other parties, passed in a 198-138 vote. The conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox […]
December 21, 2020
Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear …
Thank you to everyone in the Exit International community for their support and goodwill in this most terrible of years. Exit will start back in 2021 with the first of our monthly Snippets. The first Snippet will be held at 21.00 GMT on Wednesday 27 January 2021. Use the Time Zone Converter to determine your […]
December 14, 2020
Austria Lifts Ban on Assisted Suicide
Severely ill people in Austria will now have the right to end their lives with the help of another person, the Constitutional Court ruled yesterday, lifting the ban on assisted suicide, DPA reported. However, killing a person at his request remains illegal, the higher judicial institution stressed. Several citizens have asked judges to repeal the […]
December 13, 2020
New Doxit Podcast – Legal Wave of Change
From 25 years ago when voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill was so controversial that the Federal Government of Australia used a hitherto unknown section of the Australian Constitution (s122) to overturn the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act to today when politicians can’t act fast enough getting behind assisted dying laws as […]
December 2, 2020
Calls to pardon those who helped dying family & friends end their lives
A scientist convicted of helping his terminally ill mother die has written to the Prime Minister seeking a pardon – expected to be the first of several such pleas for mercy. He speaks with Jonathan Milne. Sean Davison was called home from South Africa to care for his dying mother. Dr Patricia Ferguson was terminally ill with […]
December 1, 2020
‘Laura’s Choice’ Documentary Wins Innovation Award
Three years in the making, Sam Lara & Cathy Henkel’s beautiful feature documentary about their grandmother/ mother Laura Henkel’s life and death had its world premiere to a standing ovation at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival on Saturday 12 December. Laura is eccentric, outspoken, feisty and 90 years old. She has decided she wants […]
November 29, 2020
Demedicalisation: radically reframing the assisted dying debate – Lucy Thomas
British Medical Journal, Lucy Thomas
Lucy Thomas questions why assisted dying is framed as a medical solution to a medical problem and proposes demedicalising the debate Lucy Thomas, consultant in public health and specialty doctor in palliative care Medically assisted dying currently exists as a legal medical procedure for patients meeting defined eligibility criteria in six countries, one Australian state, […]