Law Library of Congress Report on Regulation of Assisted Dying

The Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.  has published a report on the Regulation of Assisted Dying.

"This report addresses the regulation of assisted dying in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. It sets out the general legal frameworks on assisted dying and examines whether specific diseases, in particular Parkinson’s disease, were discussed during the parliamentary debates or invoked as a reason for passing the respective laws."

"Assisted dying includes euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is generally defined as the act of causing death to prevent further suffering. It can take the form of active euthanasia (e.g., administering a lethal dose of a drug) or passive euthanasia (withholding life-sustaining treatment). This report does not address passive euthanasia. Assisted suicide is the act of assisting a person in ending their life to prevent further suffering."

"It appears that while all the surveyed jurisdictions require the patient to have a serious and incurable disease among the eligibility criteria for assisted dying, none of them included specific diseases as part of the rationale for passing their laws. However, the question whether specific diseases qualify a person for assisted suicide was mentioned in Belgium and the Netherlands."

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2 and a half million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Over the years, it has published dozens of comparative law reports which are a treasure trove for legal research on a huge variety of issues.