- Netherlands and Belgium pioneered legal, regulated euthanasia since 2002; both have strict safeguards and extensions allowing some child requests.
- Switzerland prohibits euthanasia but permits assisted dying, attracting many Europeans; assistance is allowed if not motivated by selfish reasons and guided by ethics codes.
- Spain legalised euthanasia and medically assisted dying in 2021 with strict conditions, including written requests, reconfirmation, capacity and evaluation committee approval.
- Slovenia and Portugal saw laws decriminalising assisted dying suspended or blocked after referendums and constitutional court rulings.
- Italy and the UK remain in debate: Italy lacks national legislation despite court guidance; the UK faces renewed parliamentary votes and prior upper house rejection.
As France looks set to adopt a bill to allow assisted dying on Wednesday, here is a look at which European countries already authorise the terminally ill to end their lives.
Some can permit euthanasia, when a caregiver induces a patient’s death at their request.
Others in some cases grant permission for assisted dying, when someone helps a patient end their own life.
– Pioneers: Netherlands, Belgium –
In the Netherlands, euthanasia has been legal but strictly regulated since April 2002.
A doctor and an independent expert must determine that the patient is suffering unbearably and without hope of improvement.
This right was extended in 2023 to children under 12.
Belgium followed the Netherlands later in 2002 by adopting euthanasia with similar caveats to the Dutch.
In 2014 it became the first in the world to allow terminally ill children of all ages to also request euthanasia.
Luxembourg decriminalised euthanasia and assisted dying in 2009.
– Switzerland: go-to destination –
Switzerland prohibits euthanasia but has allowed assisted dying since World War II, its criminal code outlawing its incitement or assistance only “from selfish motives”.
Medical ethics codes are in place and the patient is helped to die by associations. Many Europeans go there to be helped to die.
The parliament in neighbouring Austria also voted to legalise assisted dying for those with a serious or terminal illness in 2021.
– Spain: strict conditions –
Spain adopted a law in 2021 allowing euthanasia and medically assisted dying.
The conditions are strict: the applicant must be capable and conscious, the request must be made in writing, reconfirmed later, and approved by an evaluation committee.
– Slovenia, Portugal suspend law –
The Slovenian parliament in July last year legalised assisted dying for lucid, terminally ill patients if their suffering was unbearable and all treatment options had been exhausted.
But Slovenians in a November referendum voted to suspend the law.
Portugal adopted the decriminalisation of euthanasia in 2023, but the Constitutional Court last year decided it should not come into force.
– Moving to regulation in Italy –
In 2019, the Constitutional Court outlined the conditions under which a patient could access assisted dying without the helper facing criminal charges.
But it remains difficult to apply as the Italian parliament has not adopted the necessary legislation.
As a result, a pro-euthanasia association pushed for the adoption of regional rules, with Tuscany being the first last year to speed up and simplify the procedure.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition challenged Tuscany’s regulation.
– New debate in Britain –
UK lawmakers will again debate legalising assisted dying in September.
Members of the House of Commons last year voted to allow adults with an incurable illness to take substances that cause their death in England and Wales, but the unelected upper house scuppered the bill.
Lawmakers in the self-governing British dependencies of Jersey and the Isle of Man have already approved euthanasia legislation, but the moves are still awaiting royal assent.
Lawmakers in Edinburgh in March rejected a bill in the devolved Scottish parliament to legalise assisted dying.
