ABSTRACT
“Assisted Dying” refers to a situation where mentally competent, terminally ill patients ask for assistance to end their lives and where such assistance is given in the form of a doctor providing a lethal dose (usually of barbiturates) which the dying person must be able to self-administer. It differs from “Voluntary Euthanasia,” where a doctor administers a fatal injection, and from “Assisted Suicide,” where there is no requirement that the patient be terminally ill. However, since most discussions of such issues share similar characteristics this article will not wholly be confined to Assisted Dying.
