Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 74(4) Nov 2024

Assisted Suicide

Dr PravinDr Pravin Thevathasan

On the day that Kim Leadbetter MP announced her proposal to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life, the BBC published an article that highlighted the case of a man who committed suicide as a result of his suffering due to multiple sclerosis (3 October, 2024).

But is multiple sclerosis a terminal illness? From a medical perspective, it is not. I was recently told of a case of a person who was diagnosed with it in the late 1970s and who is still living. MS can of course progress more rapidly. Does this mean that the same condition may be a terminal illness in some instances but not in others? What about dementia and a host of other conditions?

Legalising assisted suicide will open the floodgates.