[PASSED] Access to Life-Ending Services

[Apatosaurus]

The General Assembly

Access to Life-Ending Services

A resolution to modify universal standards of healthcare.

Category: Health Area of Effect: Healthcare Proposed by: Apatosaurus (co-authored by Imperium Anglorum)

The General Assembly,

Believing that individuals should possess the right to end their life on their own terms if they are in unbearable agony from an incurable illness, and

Convinced that the supposed dangers of permitting access to assisted suicide do not outweigh the right to have a dignified and humane death,

Hereby enacts the following:

1. Let these terms be defined as follows within this resolution:
   1. “Assisted suicide” is defined as the ending of the life of an individual where:
      1. the procedure is quick and painless,
      2. the procedure is in the privacy of the patient, such that the only individuals present are the medical professional performing the operation, any of their medical assistants, the patient, and any individuals that the patient has granted explicit permission to be present,
      3. the procedure is performed by a medical professional trained in assisted suicide,
      4. the recipient has an incurable serious physical illness that will directly result in their death in the foreseeable future or directly results in permanent unbearable agony, and
      5. the recipient has provided verifiable, informed consent on their own free will to the procedure and method thereof (where they are fully aware of what they are consenting to, all significant consequences, and any possible alternatives); the individual in question must be permitted to withdraw this consent at any time.
   2. An "eligible patient" is defined as an individual eligible to receive assisted suicide who has provided the necessary consent and is in a species that biologically can die.
   3. Assisted suicide services shall be considered "locally accessible" if no substantial burden to quality of life, time, or finances to eligible patients in those areas is posed by the necessary travel to receive said assisted suicide services.
2. Member states must provide assisted suicide services to eligible patients within their jurisdiction. In areas where assisted suicide services are not locally accessible, member states must arrange for eligible patients in those areas to travel to the nearest clinic within World Assembly jurisdiction that provides safe assisted suicide services.
3. No member state may discriminate against any persons (or persons related thereof) for receiving, seeking, administering, or otherwise facilitating, assisted suicide, including but not limited to:
   1. discriminating against said persons in tax by placing a higher burden of tax on them,
   2. prosecuting individuals, or individuals related thereof, for receiving, seeking, administrating, or otherwise facilitating assisted suicide,
   3. withholding any inheritance from the heirs of individuals, due to said individuals having died due to receiving assisted suicide, or
   4. failing to provide equal protection before the law to said persons.
4. No person, group of persons, or member state may deliberately coerce or require an individual to seek or receive assisted suicide. Similarly, it is prohibited for any person, group of persons or member state to deliberately coerce or require an individual against seeking or receiving assisted suicide.
5. No member state may implement any policy that has a cognisable impact of burdening the ability of eligible patients to receive assisted suicide, unless that member state shows that the restriction furthers a clearly stated, compelling, and practical state interest, with narrowly tailored means that are the least restrictive necessary to achieve the stated interest.
6. Consent provided by an individual for assisted suicide in advance of meeting section 1a.iii requirements or their preferred timeframe for receiving assisted suicide shall count as consent for the purposes of 1av and 1b. However, assisted suicide may not be performed on that individual until all the other requirements in 1a are met and if applicable, the preferred timeframe to receive assisted suicide as provided by the consenting individual is met.
7. A medical professional that has publicly communicated a bona fide objection against performing assisted suicide may not be required to perform assisted suicide, as long as that professional directs patients seeking assisted suicide to easily, readily, and locally accessible assisted suicide services. No member state, person, or group of persons may deliberately coerce or require a medical professional to either provide or not provide such an objection.
8. Member states must fund all Section 2 services and travel such that they are free for the recipient, unless the individual receiving such travel or services can already otherwise afford such without posing a substantial burden to their finances. The World Assembly General Fund may also fund assisted suicide services if a member state is unable to do so without causing serious damage to their economy or finances.

Link to the discussion on the NS Forums

For	Against	Abstain
1	3	0

Please vote and discuss below. Feel free to make additional posts in discussion.

[Apatosaurus]

For

[Minskiev]

Hard against, with all this silly "substantial" "serious" etc. language that is entirely meaningless due to there being no arbiter of what is substantial or serious.

[Salem]

Against.

[Tinhampton]

Against. Iffy on principle