While it can be a political issue, it is one that underneath it all goes deeply into issues like religious belief and what human dignity means. Limiting assisted dying to someone who has a terminal illness that is expected to kill them in 6 months can sound reasonable (and it is to me), but that leaves out a lot. Some assisted suicide laws allow someone who is diagnosed with incurable depression to end their life, and that is a lot harder to me personally, that maybe the problem is our mental and physical health care systems are failing people and what is incurable depression may just be the system fails too many people (and that is simply my gut feeling, shows my skepticism of how health care is done; and it is very possible that some people are so depressed there is nothing anyone can do). Where the law mentioned fails is what about someone with ALS, that is going to see decline over time that is going to take away so much, or Alzheimers and other forms of dementia, that can take years. What if someone wants to end their life on their own terms so they don’t experience the decline those insidious diseases inflict on them? What is someone wants to die with dignity?
Someone mentioned a common belief of some religious systems, that human beings are supposed to suffer, that suffering either is part of some cosmic plan or something that brings them closer to God or whoever. Life has suffering in it, it is part of being mortal, I get that, we lose loved ones, we fight depression, some of us fight addictions, or have painful conditions we deal with every day. The thing is that there can be suffering that is beyond what a person can face, where they don’t want to have to go through that, and like everything in life, what one person can suffer through another person may not be able to, do we deny the latter the right to end it with dignity? Should one religious or other philosophy deny someone else what they see as a dignified end?
I am troubled by things I have read about, like the Swiss company that has created this suicide module for being wanting to end it. I think laws like the OP posted are a good first step, but I think the law has to examine the factors around assisted suicide and decide maybe sensible safeguards that prevent someone who merely is dealing with a bad moment from killing themselves legally, like counseling to make sure that this is just a temporary blip (likewise a reasonable waiting period is not a bad idea, unless the person has a terminal disease and is already miserable, or has degeneration where there is no prognosis other than further degeneration).
One of the problems I have with the moral ideas against suicide is that it totally ignores dignity, in my experience it goes beyond that and tells you there is dignity in suffering, which I don’t believe at all. We euthenize our companion animals when they are suffering because we want them to be at peace, and they cannot make that decision. My thought is why should someone who is dying or has a long term prognosis of degeneration and decline not have the right to choose when to go to maintain their dignity? In a system of law that is supposed to allow people the right to determine their own path, why should the law step in in situations like this and not allow someone to determine their own version of death with dignity? Especially when it is influenced by religious belief that suicide is always a mortal sin (among other things, that there are religious beliefs that don’t feel assisted suicide in cases of suffering is a sin). That doesn’t mean like in Kurt Vonnegut (I forget the story) where people can ask to be euthenized (I think it was Welcome to the Monkey House) for any reason they want, there needs to be guardrails to make sure that it is what they really wish and that it isn’t in a moment of despair.
Anyway, my thoughts, and it doesn’t mean people who believe differently are wrong, this has a lot of gray areas, even to myself. On the other hand, in a world of differing beliefs I think at least in terms of the state, we have to be careful to not trample on the rights of people to decide what living with dignity means and not impose the ideas of one group of people, even a majority, over the others while not creating a free for all either.
Sometimes it creates a real conundrum, where you see people who say the government interferes too much in people’s lives supporting efforts to repeal or have courts nullify assisted suicide laws that is probably one of the biggest decisions a human being can make about themselves.
Again, this is not me saying anyone’s beliefs are wrong, these are just my thoughts on the subject, how I have tried to see it (and it evolves over time, as I see things that create gray areas or where i am not sure).