ABSTRACT
Lethal drugs can, for good reasons, normally only be acquired on a doctor's prescription. Writing it is commonly seen as ‘assisting a suicide’ and in most jurisdictions legally forbidden as such. But compare two legal systems that allow a doctor to provide such assistance. In the Benelux countries she is supposed to supervise the process and to make sure that it goes well. In Oregon she leaves that executive responsibility fully to the patient. In that case she is not really ‘assisting’ someone to end his life but only lifting a blockade in a case in which the ratio for the blockade doesn't apply. She stands out of the way.
If, on the other hand, the Benelux procedure is followed, one cannot properly say either that the physician is (merely) providing ‘assistance’. Rather she is participating in a joint action of ending the person's life. An action of the first kind can be justified by an appeal to the person's right to self-determination; it follows that access should only be provided to people whose decisions to end their lives have been voluntary and well-considered. But a blanket prohibition of providing access to lethal drugs cannot be justified.
A blanket prohibition of helping a close relative or friend to end her life cannot be justified either. It disregards the social dimension of autonomous decision-making.
