Choosing When to Die and How

The Suicide Act of 1961 decriminalized suicide in the United Kingdom. In 1980, the Act was in the news again because of the decision of EXIT to publish a book that describes effective means of suicide. This article discusses two objections, based on legal & medical grounds, to this decision. It is asserted that there is an element of hypocrisy in the medical opposition to the book given the high suicide rate of physicians & their easy access to painless lethal agents.