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\u201cBut it\u2019s [VAD] something that needs to be spoken about and needs to be brought up because it is a choice and no-one’s saying you have to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Annaliese Holland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In: \u201cAnnaliese Holland will die within months. Here is what she wants you to know\u201d<\/a>, \u201cThis is not simply a workforce issue. It is a patient care issue. If practitioners withdraw from VAD work due to financial pressures, patients will face reduced access to a compassionate end\u2011of\u2011life option. Continuity of care will be disrupted, and the promise of dignity and autonomy at life\u2019s end will be compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Andrea Bendrups, In: \u201cAustralia Must Confront the Remuneration Gap in Voluntary Assisted Dying Care\u201d<\/a>, \u201cThe pain of him dying is still here and my heart is broken but there is peace. I realise that due to organisations like Dignitas I no longer fear my death.\u201d In: \u201cDignitas widow investigated by police after husband\u2019s death has \u2018found peace\u2019\u201d<\/a>, \u201cAm I being selfish? Yes. But it\u2019s my death I\u2019m talking about, probably the most intimate moment in my life, and I resent anyone who wants to step in the way and tell me how they believe it has to happen. I\u2019m sure that palliative care is wonderful but at the end of the day, I may decide that it\u2019s not for me. I want my friends and family to remember me as I am now: writing this in glorious Crete, sane and relatively healthy, looking forward to tomorrow \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anthony Horowitz, In: \u201cWhy can\u2019t I choose when to die?\u201d<\/a>, \u201cMy mother died from metastatic brain cancer in 2024. She had access to what professionals described as excellent palliative support. But for 10 days, I watched her suffer in profound distress. [\u2026] The lesson I took from this wasn\u2019t that palliative care isn\u2019t important \u2013 it\u2019s that it\u2019s not always enough. For people like my mother, the option of assisted dying wouldn\u2019t have replaced care, it would have honoured her autonomy when care could no longer ease her suffering. It would have given her back a feeling of control and, with it, an ability to enjoy more of her last days before her symptoms became too much.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rebecca Gillanders, In: Letters: \u201cPalliative care and choice must be at the heart of the assisted dying debate\u201d<\/a>, \u201cResidential aged care is someone\u2019s home. This is not about taking a position for or against VAD \u2013 it\u2019s about giving older people and their families the clarity they need at a deeply personal time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Craig Gear, In: \u201cProviders are neglecting VAD despite obligations\u201d<\/a>, \u201cTo my eye, freedom <\/em>is the neglected value in these debates. [\u2026] that is, a freedom in which we shape the timing and circumstances of how we die \u2013 should be central to this conversation [\u2026] Legalising assisted dying is but a further step in realising this freedom over death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Cholbi, In: \u201cFreedom over Death\u201d<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go through a slowly diminishing period of pain and embarrassment. If a stroke meant I couldn’t speak, or I was doubly incontinent, or I lost my mind completely, I would ask to be put down. That’s because I want to be who I am. I don’t want to be less than I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Miriam Margolyes, In: \u201cHarry Potter actor Miriam Margolyes, 84, says she was foolish for not taking better care of her body\u201d<\/a> \u201cI think the decision should be of the patient. The patient should be the one to make this decision on their own. Patients need the information about their condition, treatment options, palliative care options and prognosis. But they are the ones to decide how to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Effy Vayena, In: \u201cEffy Vayena: The decision for euthanasia must rest solely with the patient\u201d<\/a> \u201cPeople in Lithuania \u2013 both in society and in medicine \u2013 are not ignoring the topic. They are thinking, wondering, sometimes unsure, but clearly ready to talk. Support for MAID is growing, but there is also care, caution, and a wish to do things thoughtfully. In the end, the main question is simple: how can we make sure that people in the final stage of life are treated with care, dignity, and honesty?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benedikt Bachmetjev and Artur Airapetian, In: \u201cLITHUANIA \u2013 What do the public and doctors think about Medical Assistance in Dying?\u201d, \u201cThis is a historic day. This Bill will ensure people on the Isle of Man will finally have choice and dignity at the end of their lives. I am incredibly proud of our island for not only listening to its people but, more importantly, listening to those facing the end of life. In this debate, compassion and evidence have prevailed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vicky Christian, In: \u201cIsle of Man assisted dying bill passes!\u201d \u201c[My attitude towards assisted dying] changed a lot! Now, when I hear somebody using the term suicide tourism I am ready to fight. I have become much more aware of the many false notions and ideas that the yellow press and the sensationalism have spread about assisted dying and I feel an almost personal duty to debunk them. Also, on a more personal level, a lot of ethical questions came up in the process, and, along with them, the realisation of how important it is that we talk and debate about assisted dying without taboos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carlos Marques-Marcet, In: \u201cInterview with Spanish film director Carlos Marques-Marcet about his film Polvo ser\u00e1n\u201d, \u201cI\u2019d never thought of it [assisted dying] before David got bone cancer, so no, I didn\u2019t have an opinion. But I have always been in favour of people being in charge of their own lives, of thinking for themselves, of being allowed to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dame Prue Leith, In: \u201cPrue Leith saw her elder brother ‘screaming in pain’ before his death\u201d, \u201cDoesn\u2019t a person who has been told that she has fewer than six months to live have the right to decide whether she prefers her savings to be spent on her care or to be available to her family after she dies? If, perhaps after using some of her savings for her own care, she judges that this is not money well spent, isn\u2019t she in the best position to decide?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics<\/p>\n\n\n\n In: \u201cChoice in Dying Comes to the UK\u201d, \u201cWhat I think the conservative comment is really drawn to is paternalism, i.e., restricting the freedom of people for their own good. I concede permitting assisted dying will result in some people choosing to die against their best interests. People should be free to make bad choices however. The state has no right to stop us from marrying the wrong person, choosing a bad career or having kids against our Best interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charles Amos, In: \u201cCharles Amos: Prohibiting assisted dying”, \u201cI might not need assisted dying, but if I do, then I 100 per cent want the choice to say \u2018I can\u2019t tolerate this level of pain, I want to be able to die at home and have my loved ones with me’. I should have that right. It should be my choice not to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophie Blake, In: \u201cBrighton TV presenter to make emotional plea to MPs on assisted dying\u201d, \u201cThe right to die without unnecessary suffering has been denied for far too long. I have had relatives die of cancer, including a brother with the same cancer I have who died earlier this year. Despite the best care a hospice could provide his last few weeks were no more than a living death which he wanted out of. He ended up in a coma, with no food or liquids and it took him a further five days to die. Who knows what nightmares and agony he went through during those days? I work for an animal welfare group and if someone let their dog die the way my brother did, I would have them prosecuted for cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n John F. Robins<\/p>\n\n\n\n In: \u201cProposed Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill \u2013 Liam McArthur MSP; \u201cAlmost 95% of the patients I have cared for have also been receiving excellent quality Palliative Care; their reasons for seeking VAD [voluntary assisted dying] as their preferred way to die are not due to lack of access to services. Time and again it is existential distress: a loss of the sense of self, dignity, autonomy, meaning, or purpose in life, that causes a kind of hopelessness particularly resistant to palliative interventions. These concerns are particularly prevalent in those seeking access to VAD.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Clare Fellingham, East Metropolitan Health Service in Western Australia<\/p>\n\n\n\n In: \u201cAssisted Dying\/Assisted Suicide | Second Report of Session 2023\u201324<\/a>\u201d (PDF)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am terminally ill. It’s extremely unlikely I’d choose to end my own life under this policy, but I think it’s essential that people in my position can choose. That said. The lack of education around palliative and end-of-life care is chronic, and a great many people have fears that are mostly unfounded. Education and support around decision-making will be of utmost importance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n User Roses2<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comment on: \u201cAt last, the chance to legalise assisted dying in the UK \u2013 and end the untold, unnecessary anguish\u201d, \u201cAnd no family should have to face the torture of walking away from theirloved one\u2019s body. For us, that will always be the hardest part. [\u2026]Giving a terminally ill person control and choice over how they die transforms the remainder of their lives and enhances the qualityand pleasure of their remaining days immeasurably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julie Casson<\/p>\n\n\n\n In: \u201cMy husband said he\u2019d found a cure for his terminal illness \u2013 then he was gone\u201d, \u201cI can live longer knowing that MAD may be available to me, certainly I will live more peacefully with the prospect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paddy Brocherie, in: Letters to the editor, \u201cWhy should the question of terminality be regarded as a relevant criterion at all? Indeed, provided pain is adequately controlled, the terminally ill patient is less likely to need euthanasia than someone whose equally distressing illness or disability is not terminal, since the latter could face many years of suffering. The two most important criteria are surely the intolerable nature of the condition and its incurability \u2013 the proper question being whether an intolerable condition is apparently incurable, not whether it is terminal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Smoker, in: MDMD news article \u201cDistinguished right-to-die activist Barbara Smoker dies\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStrong personal faith and support for choice at the end of life are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I support the legalisation of assisted dying because of my religious beliefs, not in spite of them. And I know I am far from alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n George Carey, In an article in \u201cIsle of Man Today\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHaving some control of the dying process may lift psychological and general health. For many people, having access to medication gives them the option to exercise their autonomy and die on their own terms. Some of those people choose not to have the medicine dispensed and some have the medication and choose not to take it. We know from feedback they do receive comfort from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julian Gardner, In an article in The Age<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople who are terminally ill should have the option of dignified and compassionate assisted dying, alongside the wonderful palliative care that already exists. I pray that politicians, lawmakers, and religious leaders have the courage to support the choices terminally ill citizens make in departing Mother Earth with dignity and love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desmond Mpilo Tutu (1931 – 2021), In a video message<\/a> alongside his interview with the \u201cWashington Post\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know, death is something many of us are uncomfortable speaking about. But to die is to be human. And anything human is mentionable. Anything mentionable is manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom Hanks<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the movie \u201cA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood\u201d, basing on the true story of the creator, composer and host of the educational television series \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood\u201d, Fred McFeely Rogers (20 March 1928 \u2013 27 February 2003), known as \u201cMister Rogers\u201d scene from the movie<\/a>. \u201cThe prohibition of assisted suicide services violates the general right of personality in its manifestation as a right to a self-determined death afforded to persons determined to end their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Federal Consttitutional Court of Germany<\/p>\n\n\n\n in its judgment of 26 February 2020 \u201cCriminalisation of assisted suicide services unconstitutional\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Press release<\/a> by the Court and abstract of the judgment<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can\u2019t remember the first time I heard the name Dignitas but, like millions of people, what it represents is now well known to me. The vast majority of the British public understand the courage of those seeking a dignified death, and the compassion needed by their loved ones. Our outdated laws discriminate between rich and poor, discourage proper conversations between patients and their doctors, criminalise grieving relatives who spend time with their loved ones in their dying moments and oblige people to end their lives beforethey are ready. Worst of all, while they are predicated on preserving the sanctity of life, they show no mercy to those facing an agonising death, and deny free will to those whose lives and deaths depend upon it. It\u2019s time that the UK stopped outsourcing its compassion to Switzerland and began listening to dying people who want and need the most basic choice they will ever face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kit Malthouse, In: \u201cThe True Cost \u2013 How the UK outsources death to Dignitas\u201d<\/a> (PDF)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is nothing undignified in choosing to allow an illness to run its full course. What is undignified is denying people suffering intolerably their right to choose otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Short, in an interview<\/a> with his cousin Peter Short<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf everything that someone can ever experience, nothing is really more overwhelming than the possibility of one\u2019s death. Therefore, for most people, it is natural to try and keep this event out of their minds for as long as possible. Although they know that other will die, they do not want to think that this will happen to them \u2013 they are terrified of dying, and refuse to discuss it. Thus, it was intriguing to discover, from a research paper published in the Personality and Social Psychology Review, in April 2012, that \u2018thinking about your mortality could help your marriage because an awareness of death makes people value their relationships….researchers found that awareness of death can reduce divorce rates, and suggested that contemplating death could make people more positive, and less aggressive or selfish\u2019. I strongly believe that we must openly accept the fact that eventually we will all die \u2013 we must be absolutely realistic about this as it is the collective destiny for all living things on this Earth… Today, people live much longer and most deaths occur away from home. Our minds seem unprepared for what our bodies are doing. Whilst we should not have a morbid preoccupation with death, we should plan ahead, carefully considering, in the hope that we have a choice, how we want to die. Our death is as unique as our life \u2013 there is no standard model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Michael Irwin, In: “Approaching Old-Old”, published June 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want to see a world where everyone has access to death with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brittany Lauren Maynard, 1984 \u2013 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n In spring 2014, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard learned that she had terminal brain cancer. Brittany advocated for access for death with dignity, which for her meant that when her suffering became too great, she could call everyone she loves to her side as she tells them she loves them and they say goodbye. She was able to realise her self-chosen ending of suffering and life this way on 1 November 2014.<\/em> Read more on the Brittany Maynard Fund website<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brittany’s video was filmed just weeks before she chose to advance her time of death, before her suffering became unbearable.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe best thing which eternal law ever ordained was that it allowed us one entrance into life, but many exits. Must I await the cruelty either of disease or of man, when I can depart through the midst of torture, and shake off my troubles? . . . Are you content? Then live! Not content? You may return to where you came from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucius Annaeus Seneca (approx. 1 – 65 AC), In: Epistulae morales LXX ad Lucilium (Letters to Lucilius)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), \u201cThe State may not, consistent with the United States and Georgia Constitutions, make the public advertisement or offer to assist in a suicide a criminal offense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Hugh Thompson, Decision of 6 February 2012 of the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia \u201cThe current legal status of assisted dying is inadequate, incoherent and should not continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commission on Assisted Dying
ABC, 29.3.26<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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President of VADANZ<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Louise Shackleton<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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novelist<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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daughter from Colchester, Essex<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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CEO Older Persons Advocacy Network OPAN<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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professor and personal chair in philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in in Scotland, UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Research Council of Lithuania<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dignitas Newsletter<\/a>, May 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Chair of My Death, My Decision Isle of Man<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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film director, screenwriter and film editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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former Channel 5 TV sports presenter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Summary of Consultation Responses<\/a>\u201d (PDF, p. 11)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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UK social justice movement activist, former Chair of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, Editor of \u201cVoluntary Euthanasia: experts debate the right to die\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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former Archbishop of Canterbury<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Lawyer, Chairperson of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board, Victoria, Australia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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South African Bishop, Human Rights Activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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MP, Chair, Choice at the End of Life All-Party Parliamentary Group<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Former Medical Director at the United Nations and Founder of the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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writing for the Supreme Court of the US-State of Georgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information, click here to be linked to “Court rulings”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJanuary 2012<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
In England, The Commission on Assisted Dying, chaired by Lord Falconer and launched in November 2010, has published its final report
Website of the Commission on Assisted Dying<\/a>
Submission of Dignitas to the Commission<\/a> (PDF)
Final Report of the Commission on Assisted Dying<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n