Choosing to die : should terminally sick individuals be given the right to choose when to die?

Abstract

It has been fashionable for some time now for people to demand what they want as a matter of rights. During the past few decades, we have heard claims if a right to health care, a right to privacy (embracing also a right to abort or commit suicide), a right to be born, even a right not to have been born. In this context we hear much about the ultimate rights claim, a "right to die", which has emerged as a result of the changing circumstances in life-sustaining treatment and palliative care.