Conclusion

Abstract

This book has shown that there is a sharp distinction in the criminal law approach to passive and active euthanasia. Whilst the law recognizes the patient's right to refuse treatment and permits passive euthanasia in certain circumstances, active voluntary euthanasia is unequivocally prohibited in most jurisdictions as murder regardless of the special mitigating circumstances usually existing in such cases. Further, a doctor who actively assists a patient to commit suicide is incurring criminal liability for the offence of assisting suicide irrespective of the special circumstances. However, a doctor may lawfully comply with a patient's request for the withholding or withdrawing of life-saving treatment which will result in death: although the patient's conduct may in fact constitute a form of suicide by omission, the courts have rejected this characterization, albeit on spurious grounds, and have thus been able to hold that the issue of assisted suicide is not implicated in these circumstances. Consideration has also been given to the legal reform initiatives aimed at securing legalization of active voluntary euthanasia, focusing on developments in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and the Netherlands.