Whose suffering should count in the assisted dying debate?

The Victorian Parliament’s Inquiry into End of Life Choices, which handed down its report recently, made a number of important recommendations for promoting advance care planning, implementing patient choices, and improving and resourcing palliative care, summarised nicely in the short video here. The most controversial recommendation of the committee is its 49th and final one, that the Victorian Government introduce a legal framework providing for assisted dying. The recommended framework is a detailed and considered one, but, as senior lecturer in law and medical ethics, Dr Andrew McGee, points out in the post below, the eligibility criteria for accessing assisted dying draw a distinction between those who are terminally ill, and those who are suffering from intolerable, irremediable symptoms but are not necessarily nearing the end of life. He asks us to consider whether this distinction is a clear-cut one