Joining a right-to-die society: Motivation, beliefs and experiences

Abstract

Right-to-die societies represent a new social movement driven by societal change. They reflect concerns about the impact of advances in medicine, about the quality of care available for people at the end of life and the consequences of demographic changes that lead to the prolongation of dying with high degrees of disability and distress. More generally, the growth of individualism and the obligation towards exercising personal autonomy leads to desires to control events near the end of life. This paper reports a survey of the membership of a UK right-to-die society Friends at the End (FATE). A questionnaire answered by 41% (162) of the members of this society provided insight into motives and experiences that had led to a decision to join. Members were more likely to be female, older and of higher social standing than the general population. A high proportion were religious and found no conflict between this and their membership, and a high proportion had backgrounds in health and social care. Motives for membership included the desire for practical assistance with dying, past involvement with deaths that involved high levels of dependency and distress, and commitment to ‘right’ to die ideology. The concerns of members about the distress of dying mirror what is known about the reasons why people approaching death request an assisted death.

Keywords:

• right-to-die
• assisted dying
• euthanasia
• physician-assisted suicide
• health social movements