Now adults should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to die

Now adults should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to be spayed or sterilized.

This is the purpose of a proposal that Bjarni Kárason Petersen, Minister of State for Legal Affairs and Family Affairs, intends to submit to the Icelandic Parliament.

As the law is now, people must have permission from a committee to be starved. In the case of married people, the spouse must also give his or her consent.

But now the intention is that people who have reached the age of 25 and who are able to understand the importance of the intervention have the right to be stervað, without asking anyone.

It is proposed that people between the ages of 25 and 30 who wish to die should have a period of reflection of up to one and a half years before they can undergo surgery.

People under the age of 25, and people who, due to developmental disabilities or mental illness, are unable to understand the importance of the intervention, may be excluded under special circumstances, but this must always be done with the permission of a committee.

The committee will be composed of a lawyer, a psychiatrist and a social worker.

In this connection, permission may be granted when there is a high risk of hereditary diseases, or when the applicant and the spouse are unable to take care of a child.

Sterving may also occur when there is a high risk that the applicant will not be able to complete the pregnancy, or that a child will not be viable.

It is also proposed that permission may be granted for extinction due to social circumstances.

But decisions of the committee can be appealed to the Faroese Appeals Board.

The intention is also that people who are unable to understand the importance of the intervention should be offered counseling and supportive interviews from a sexual counselor or social worker.

– The aim is to help the person concerned make a decision on a well-informed basis, says the Governor.

But he adds that it will never be allowed to force people to die. However, it is proposed that people can only be frozen with permission from a committee.

Permission may be granted if there is a risk that the person concerned will commit a sexual offence, or if there is a risk that the sexual intercourse will lead to serious, mental, or social problems.

But then a report from the Forensic Medicine Council must be available.

Today it is not allowed to freeze people under 21 years, but now it will be raised to 25 years. 

According to current law, there is also the authority to bark people under the age of 18 under very special circumstances, but now that authority will be deleted.