The Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) convened a group of people at random to have a discussion on the subject, and this “citizens’ jury” debated for eight weeks.
It came to the conclusion that if a person is terminally ill and capable of making their own decisions about an assisted death, they ought to have legal access to both voluntary euthanasia (in which medical professionals administer lethal drugs to patients with the intention of ending their life) and physician-assisted suicide (in which medical professionals prescribe lethal drugs to eligible patients to take themselves).
This is an important discovery that will help decision-makers who are deciding whether and how to move forward with it.
The jury consisted of twenty-eight members of the public who took part in an eight-week procedure aimed at examining the complexities surrounding assisted dying.
They deliberated over information and heard from a variety of specialists before casting their votes on whether the law should be altered to permit assisted suicide.
