Creating a safer and better functioning system: Lessons to be learned from the Netherlands for an ethical defence of an autonomy-only approach to assisted dying.

The proposal to allow assisted dying for people who are not severely ill reignited the Dutch end-of-life debate when it was submitted in 2016. A key criticism of this proposal is that it is too radical a departure from the safe and well-functioning system the Netherlands already has. The goal of this article is to respond to this criticism and question whether the Dutch system really can be described as safe and well functioning.