Contribution toward public consultation on assisted voluntary euthanasia (NL-0019-2025 – published on 7 May 2025, running till 2 July 2025)

Abstract

The Government of Malta, through the Office of the Prime Minister and its Parliamentary Secretariat for Equality and Reforms, in May 2025 began a process of public consultation on what it termed “assisted voluntary euthanasia”, which was accompanied by two supporting documents ostensibly intended to serve as “the basis for this national discussion". This paper contributes to the national discussion by addressing issues in in respect of the terminology used in the documentation in support of the public consultation and why this is significant as a matter of law, the purpose of the public consultation and whether there is an obligation to address in Maltese law the subject at the heart of the public consultation, as well as how the public consultation relates to and should take into account health care law in Malta.