PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Braun, Esther TI - An autonomy-based approach to assisted suicide: a way to avoid the expressivist objection against assisted dying laws AID - 10.1136/jme-2022-108375 DP - 2023 Jul 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 497--501 VI - 49 IP - 7 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/49/7/497.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/49/7/497.full SO - J Med Ethics2023 Jul 01; 49 AB - In several jurisdictions, irremediable suffering from a medical condition is a legal requirement for access to assisted dying. According to the expressivist objection, allowing assisted dying for a specific group of persons, such as those with irremediable medical conditions, expresses the judgment that their lives are not worth living. While the expressivist objection has often been used to argue that assisted dying should not be legalised, I show that there is an alternative solution available to its proponents. An autonomy-based approach to assisted suicide regards the provision of assisted suicide (but not euthanasia) as justified when it is autonomously requested by a person, irrespective of whether this is in her best interests. Such an approach has been put forward by a recent judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court, which understands assisted suicide as an expression of the person’s right to a self-determined death. It does not allow for beneficence-based restrictions regarding the person’s suffering or medical diagnosis and therefore avoids the expressivist objection. I argue that on an autonomy-based approach, assisted suicide should not be understood as a medical procedure but rather as the person’s autonomous action.Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. Not applicable.