[GA - PASSED] Access to Life-Ending Services

Access to Life-Ending Services
Category: Health | Area of Effect: Healthcare
Proposed by: Apatosaurus II, Co-authored by: Imperium Anglorum | Onsite Topic​

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.

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• Vote For if you want the Delegate to vote For the resolution.
• Vote Against if you want the Delegate to vote Against the resolution.
• Vote Abstain if you want the Delegate to abstain from voting on this resolution.
• Vote Present if you are personally abstaining from this vote.

Hulldom:

IFV

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Overview
Following the passage of Imperium Anglorum’s Repeal: “Assisted Suicide Act”, this proposal seeks to enshrine the right to consensual euthanasia and assisted suicide in international law. It goes about achieving these lofty goals by preventing WA member states from prohibiting such procedures within their borders, punishing citizens for seeking or failing to seek them, coercing residents into choosing one option or another, and bars any legislation that might indirectly affect the citizenry’s access to life-ending services. Furthermore, the proposal also requires that a facility offering such services must be locally accessible for all patients who might seek them out, and preserves the right of medical facilities to abstain from euthanasia and assisted suicide procedures should there be other regional facilities capable of carrying out such procedures. Alternatively, WA member states may fund the transit fees for patients that do not have relevant facilities in their location, with WA funds available to those states which lack the proper resources to fund such endeavors.

Recommendation
This is by no means a perfect proposal. The requirements laid out in article 1(iv) are too narrow, the choice of category is debatable, and some generally strange language choices make it perhaps not as strong as it could have been. Nonetheless, in spite of the above reasons and legitimate objections made regarding the author’s character, we find the potential benefits this proposal has to offer vastly outweigh its flaws.

For the above reasons, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends a vote For the General Assembly Resolution at vote, "Access To Life-Ending Services".

This IFV Recommendation was written in collaboration with our World Assembly Legislative League partners.

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Our Voting Recommendation Dispatch--Please Upvote

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