Debate around assisted death: Should individuals have a right to die?

TW: Discussion of suicide

Last week, actress Ruth Posner and her husband Michael, both in their late 90s, died at a suicide clinic in Switzerland. Their decision has renewed the polarising debate on assisted death, at the heart which is the idea of suffering.

For proponents, suffering is the core justification for assisted death. For opponents, such a justification leads to a dangerous slippery slope. As one article in the conservative American journal Nation Review put it: “Once we decide that killing is an acceptable answer to suffering, the kind of suffering that qualifies us to be made dead continually expands.”

What is assisted dying?

Assisted dying is an inclusive term comprising: Story continues below this ad

* Physician-assisted suicide: When the person commits the final