From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Assisted suicide is suicide committed by someone with assistance from others, typically to end suffering from a severe physical illness.
It is often confused with euthanasia. Euthanasia is the killing of another in order to relieve dire suffering, whereas assisted suicide is a practice in which an individual provides a competent patient with assistance, but where the individual brings about their own death, such as when a physician provides a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient’s request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life.
Discussion of assisted suicide centers on legal, religious, and moral conceptions of suicide and a personal “right to die”. Legally speaking, the practice may be legal, illegal, or undecided, depending on the culture or jurisdiction.
Reasons for seeking
The most important reasons for requesting assistance with suicide, among patients who received prescriptions for lethal medications, were a desire to control the circumstances of death, a desire to die at home, the belief that continuing to live was pointless, and being ready to die. Depression and other psychiatric disorders, lack of social support, and concern about being a financial drain were, according to nurses, relatively unimportant.
Legality | Australia
Assisted suicide is currently illegal throughout Australia, but was for a time legal in the Northern Territory under the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_suicide
About This Article
This page is an edited, shortened version from Wikipedia, mainly because its legality covered many countries.
I am Australian and discussing my right to die here in Australia.
I am not trying to affect or change laws anywhere but here in Australia.
