BMJ  2007;334:295-298 (10 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39100.417072.BE

Analysis

Role of non-governmental organisations in physician assisted suicide

¹ School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1499, USA, ² Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Could right to die organisations be part of the solution to the many ethical difficulties doctors face over assisted suicide? Stephen Ziegler and Georg Bosshard examine how two organisations in Switzerland and Oregon help people die

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The legalisation of assisted suicide and the extent of doctors' involvement in the practice continue to generate heated debate within the medical, political, and religious communities. Historically, the discussion was strongly influenced by the Dutch model that permitted a doctor actively to hasten the death of a suffering patient.¹ By the 1990s, however, an alternative model had emerged—physician assisted suicide. This increases patient control by enabling self administration of drugs and limits the doctors' role to assessment and prescribing while involving non-physicians and non-governmental organisations in the dying process.^{1 2 3 4 5}

Recent attempts to make it legal for UK doctors to help patients die failed.⁶ Although the legalisation debate is likely to continue in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, a new debate focusing on the use of people other than doctors in assisted death seems to be emerging.^{4 7 8} Non-governmental organisations occupy a central role in facilitating physician assisted suicide in Switzerland and . . . [Full text of this article]

Terminology

Right to die organisations

Exit
Compassion and Choices

Recruitment, training, and quality control

Summary of Exit document on quality assurance in assisted suicide¹⁸
Key goals of assistance in suicide
Attributes of Exit volunteers

Regulation

Integration with medical system

Conclusion

Summary points

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