Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia – What Is Legal?

Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient who is suffering from an incurable and painful disease, or who is in an irreversible coma (sometimes referred to as "mercy killing"). The practice is illegal in most countries, and certainly illegal in the UK. There are a number of similar terms, that mean slightly different things.

The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "good death".

Assisted suicide is the act of deliberately helping another person to kill themselves. For example, if a doctor gave a patient strong sedatives knowing that the patient had the intent to abuse the medication to kill themselves, then the doctor would be engaging in assisted suicide.
Euthanasia

Are there different types of Euthanasia?

Yes, two widely used terms are "active euthanasia" and "passive euthanasia".

Active euthanasia is when somebody acts to end another person's life; for example, by administering a lethal dose of a drug.

Passive euthanasia is when treatment is withdrawn to end somebody's life. This can be confused with withdrawing treatment when it is in a person's best interests. Passive euthanasia is not legal, but withdrawing life-sustaining treatment because it's in the person's best interests can be part of good palliative care and is not euthanasia.

There are two other classifications of euthanasia: voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia.

Voluntary euthanasia is when a person makes a conscious decision to die and asks for help to do so. Non-voluntary euthanasia is when a person is unable to give their consent for treatment (for example, because they're in a coma) and another person makes the decision on their behalf, often because the ill person previously expressed a wish for their life to be ended in such circumstances.

In the UK, is Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide ever legal?

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are both illegal in the UK. Suicide is not illegal, but assisting somebody to commit suicide is illegal and has a penalty of up to 14 years in prison. Euthanasia is considered manslaughter with a maximum penalty of life in prison.

There are many pressure groups including Dignity in Dying campaigning to make assisted suicide legal in specific situations.

Is Assisted Suicide legal anywhere?

As of March 2018, human euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg, Canada and India. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, Japan, and in the US states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Vermont, Montana, Washington DC, and California. An assisted dying scheme in the Australian state of Victoria comes into effect in mid-2019.

What can I include in my Advance Directives?

An Advance Directive, or "Advance Decision" is also sometimes referred to as an advance decision to refuse treatment (ADRT). It is a decision that you make whilst you are mentally capable in advance of losing that capacity. The decision typically includes the type of medical treatment that you wish to receive.

Within an Advance Decision you can refuse a treatment that could potentially keep you alive, known as life-sustaining treatment.

This is treatment that replaces or supports ailing bodily functions, such as:
  • ventilation – this may be used if you can't breathe by yourself
  • antibiotics – this can help your body fight infection
  • cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) – this may be used if your heart stops

Everyone has the right to refuse CPR if they wish. You can make it clear to your medical team that you don't want to have CPR if you stop breathing or your heart stops beating.

This is known as a do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decision, or DNACPR order.

Are my Advance Directives legally binding?

Yes. As long as your Advance Decision and your Advance Statement are in writing and signed, then they must be respected and honoured by the attending medical team.

How It Works

When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

You can also implement security mechanisms to prevent premature access to these documents. The entire process of creating your Will and other legal documents at LegalWills is seamless and iterative, meaning you can continue to make changes until you're happy with the final product.

Create Your Documents in Five Easy Steps

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Create Your Documents

Creating your documents is quick and easy with LegalWills. Simply fill out the required fields and proceed to the next step.

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Select Your Keyholders®

Entrust up to 20 individuals to unlock your wishes when the time is right.

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Edit Your Documents for Up To One Year for Free

Make any changes to your documents using our online service.

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Keyholders® Request Access

When the time is right, your selected Keyholders® will have the ability to unlock your wishes.

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Documents are Released to Keyholders®

When the time comes and your Keyholders® request access to your documents, your wishes will be entrusted in their hands.

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Frequently Asked Questions

There is absolutely no legal requirement to use the services of a solicitor to prepare your Will.

The law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and then signed by you in the presence of two witnesses. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

If you need legal advice, you should secure the services of a solicitor, but most people do not need legal advice to prepare a Will. Especially if they are using a service like the one at LegalWills.co.uk.
When you write your Will with a solicitor, you are paying for their training, so that if you needed custom clauses written for unique situations, they would probably be able to do this for you. However, most Wills do not require unique new clauses to be written, and the vast majority of Wills are a compilation of known legal "precedents".

Most solicitors use Will writing software to prepare Wills, and we use that exact same software, but give you direct access to it. You should really be asking why a solicitor charges £800 for about an hour's work.

If you have unusual circumstances, such as a child with special needs, then you may need legal advice. But for the vast majority, you would be paying premium rates for legal advice that you don't need.

For a more thorough explanation, please read our blog article: How much does it cost to write a Will?.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for £49.95 with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our solicitors for £69.00. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is £9.95, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™ and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs £49.95. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a solicitor each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. £11.95 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at £29.95, 10 years at £39.95, 25 years at £79.95 (£3.20 per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 24 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay £11.95 to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

The UK Lasting Power of Attorney system is controlled by the government. You must use the official government website to create the form, and it must be registered with the government.

Anybody outside of the government who offers a Lasting Power of Attorney service is offering questionable value. The government website does everything that you need, for free. However, the forms must be registered, and this costs £110. There is no way of avoiding this fee.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview.

Using the MyLivingWill™ service at LegalWills.co.uk, you can prepare your Advance Directives that work with your Lasting Power of Attorney.
Our answer is different depending on what you are comparing us to.

The service at LegalWills.co.uk is significantly better than a blank form Will kit that you can buy on Amazon or WHSmiths. These blank kits do not check for errors, allow you to do things you are legally not allowed to do, and rarely cover backup scenarios. They are actually the most difficult way to prepare a well drafted Will.

We provide the same quality documents as an estate planning solicitor – often word-for-word identical, because we use the same software that they use. We've just adapted it to make it easier to understand, and given you direct access to it. Therefore, you can create a solicitor grade Will, but from the comfort of your own home at less than a tenth of the price.

When compared to other online services, we have honest, up-front pricing that is better than any equivalent service. We also believe that we have the highest quality service online today. In all the time that we have been in business, never once has one of our Wills had an issue going through the probate process. We also offer best-in-class phone and email support if you get stuck.

Some other highlights:

  • Help text every step of the way.   Every page of our service has additional help text to answer your questions. If you get stuck, send us an email and we can help.

  • Create your Will from anywhere at any time.   Our service works on any computer, phone or tablet. Which means you can create or update your Will in the middle of the night in Timbuktu if you need to.

  • Unlimited updates.   If you write your Will with a solicitor, it could be out of date by the time you get home. You don't face that issue with LegalWills.co.uk. If your circumstances change, simply login to your account, update your document, and sign your new Will. There is no charge for updates as long as you maintain a membership.

  • Professional reviews by a solicitor.   Our service works for the vast majority of situations, but on occasion people have unusual circumstances and need the reassurance of a legal professional's eye. We offer this as an option.

  • Our other services.   We don't just do Will writing. We offer a complete portfolio of services that will help you to plan your estate. We have the LifeLocker® executor tool, that allows you to document all of your personal details and assets, and MyVault™ that lets you upload important files. Together with our Keyholder® mechanism, you can be assured that the right information gets into the right hands at the right time (and not before).

  • Privacy and security.   We do not store any information as plain text. We do not store Wills in our database. All of your information is encrypted on our servers. Nobody can access it except you and your designated Keyholders® at the appropriate time. Furthermore, we do not share, trade or sell any of your data with third parties whatsoever.

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