Dignity in Dying
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Dignity in Dying (originally The Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society) is a United Kingdom nationwide campaigning organisation. It is funded by voluntary contributions from members of the public, and as of December 2010, it claimed to have 25,000 actively subscribing supporters. The organisation declares it is independent of any political, religious or other affiliations, and has the stated primary aim of campaigning for individuals to have greater choice and more control over end-of-life decisions, so as to alleviate any suffering they may be undergoing as they near the end of their life.
Dignity in Dying campaigns for the greater choice, control and access to a full range of medical and palliative services at the end-of-life, including providing terminally ill adults with the option of a painless, assisted death, within strict legal safeguards. It declares that its campaign looks to bring about a generally more compassionate approach to the end-of-life.
Dignity in Dying points out that in the 2010 British Social Attitudes survey 82% of the general public believed that a doctor should probably or definitely be allowed to end the life of a patient with a painful incurable disease at the patient's request. This was further analysed to show 71% of religious people and 92% of non-religious people supported this statement.
Alongside its campaigning work, Dignity in Dying, through its partner charity Compassion in Dying, is also an information source on end-of-life issues and a provider of advance decisions.
The society had voted in 1979 to publish a "Guide to Self-Deliverance", a booklet which described suicide methods. This was challenged by the Attorney General in 1982 under s2 of the Suicide Act 1961, and after a brief attempt to fight back against this, the distribution of the booklet was suspended in 1983.
See also
- Euthanasia in the United Kingdom
- All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life
- Assisted suicide
- Betty and George Coumbias
- World Federation of Right to Die Societies
- Final Exit Network
