The countries where assisted dying is already happening

With the UK parliament set to debate changing the law on assisted dying, here are the countries where it is legal.

Campaigners protesting in support of assisted dying in Westminster earlier this year. (PA)
Campaigners protesting in support of assisted dying in Westminster earlier this year. (PA)

The assisted dying bill will be formally introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.

It is expected to offer those with a terminal illness the right to choose to end their life, and will be put forward in the House of Commons by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.

MPs will have the chance to debate the bill on 29 November, after which it could go through a committee stage and further scrutiny and votes in the Commons and the House of Lords.

Actor and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr warned there is no safe way to change the law while guaranteeing the protection of disabled and elderly people.

The Silent Witness actor said: “This is not the time to be swayed simply by words like compassion, dignity and choice. This is about real hard facts, figures, evidence, people’s lives.

“Can we deliver on that safely? Can we safeguard lives and are disabled, older and ill people going to be safe and protected with a change in the law? I don’t think so, no.”

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 12: Presenter of the Single Documentary Award Liz Carr poses in the Winners Room during the 2024 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises at The Royal Festival Hall on May 12, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)
Actor and disability rights activist Liz Carr has warned about the assisted dying bill. (Getty Images)

While the bill's contents have not been revealed, there are concerns among some pro-change campaigners that it won't go far enough, only applying to those with less than six months left to live, and not to those suffering from Parkinson's.

Those opposed to changing the law, meanwhile, argue that some people could feel pressured to have an assisted death against their will, and have called for more focus on improving and ensuring equal access to palliative care.

Last week, the UK's highest ranking Catholic, archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, urged his churchgoers to write to their MPs to oppose changes to the law, saying suffering is an "intrinsic part of our human journey".

A previous assisted dying bill was defeated in the Commons in 2015 and another was blocked by the Lords in 2021.

The government has already confirmed that MPs will have a free vote on the bill, making a decision according to their own conscience rather than along party lines.

Assisting someone to end their life is against the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and while it is not a specific criminal offence in Scotland, assisting someone's death can leave a person open to being charged with murder or other offences.

Opponents to assisted dying, such as campaign group Care Not Killing, say the government should instead "focus on fixing our broken palliative care system".

Dignity in Dying, which is for assisted dying, says 400 million people around the world have legal access to some form of it. It defines assisted dying as "allowing a dying person the choice to control their death if they decide their suffering is unbearable".

Here, Yahoo News UK takes a look at the countries where it is legal.

Where assisted suicide is legal. (Statista)
Click the image to make it bigger. (Statista)

Assisted dying has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, as long as the motives are not "selfish".

Dignity in Dying says nearly 350 Britons have now ended their lives at Dignitas in the country and "those who go with their loved one and are present during the process face the risk of prosecution and up to 14 years in prison when they return to the UK".

It is strictly regulated and last month there were arrests after the suspected death of a woman in a so-called suicide capsule in the Swiss town of Merishausen.

Assisted dying is known as "physician-assisted dying" in the US, and is legal in 11 states: Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine and Washington DC.

Assisted dying became legal in 2021, after a referendum the year before in which it was backed by 65% of voters.

Earlier this year, Tracy Hickman, a British woman with terminal cancer who lived in the country and later had an assisted death, told UK politicians: “Look at what New Zealand has done, and do it even better. There is a lot of focus on the right to life, but people should have the right to a peaceful, gentle death.”

Every state in Australia bar one has now approved an assisted dying law, with Victoria being the first in 2017. According to the Australian End of Life Directions for Aged Care site, voluntary assisted dying laws have been passed in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and will commence on 3 November 2025. VAD is illegal in the Northern Territory.

Assisted dying has been legal since 2016, when Canada's Supreme Court struck down the previous ban.

In August, the country was used by Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of campaign group Care Not Killing Alliance, as an example of how legislation risked leading to vulnerable people being coerced into assisted dying when they should be receiving better “care and support”.

He told the Scottish parliament that in Ontario, the service “was accessed disproportionately by the most marginalised and economically deprived in society”.

According to a poll by Ipsos in July 2023, support for the country's 'Medical Assistance in Dying' (MAID) approach remains strong among the public, with an 84% approval rating.

Dignity in Dying also notes other countries "have laws that allow people who are not terminally ill to receive assistance to die.

"Sometimes this is through prescribing life-ending medication to people (assisted suicide) or through doctors actively ending the lives of people who ask them to do so (euthanasia)."

These countries include the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.