Countries that allow passive euthanasia
NETHERLANDS
Euthanasia in the Netherlands is regulated by the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act, 2002. It legalises euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in very specific cases, and very specific circumstances including the patient’s will and suffering, a second opinion, and the absence of alternatives.
BELGIUM
Belgium legalised euthanasia in September 2002. The Belgian law sets out conditions under which suicide can be practised without giving doctors a licence to kill. Patients wishing to end their lives must be conscious when they make the demand and repeat their request for euthanasia. They have to be under “constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain” resulting from an accident or incurable illness.
ITALY
Italian lawmakers passed a law last year allowing adults to decide, in consultation with their doctors, their end-of-life medical care, including the terms under which they can refuse treatment. The law permits Italians to write living wills and refuse medical treatment, artificial nutrition, and hydration.
UNITED STATES
Active euthanasia is illegal in all US states, but physician-assisted dying is legal in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. The difference between the two lies in who administers the lethal medication.
SWITZERLAND
Allows assisted suicide as long as the motive isn’t profit.
› If you are in a permanent vegetative state, how are you going to decide how much is enough for you? That is where this becomes a discussion to be had among family and friends.
PINKI VIRANI, author
› Making a decision like this is difficult for the family, especially when the patient is not conscious. The advance directive gives their thoughts a direction. DR SMITHA DESHPANDE, HOD psychiatry at
Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital
› We don’t want to create a living will, as it will be executed only if we fall ill. We are healthy now, but why should we wait for a terminal illness to strike? NARAYAN LAVATE , an 87-year-old seeking permission for active euthanasia