Two high court judges rejected Debbie Purdy's request for guidelines from the Director of Public Prosecutions on when assisted suicide cases would be prosecuted, saying it was a matter for parliament and not the courts.
There has been growing concern in recent years about whether current law is adequate to deal with misuse of the internet to promote suicide and suicide methods. The Government share the concerns that have been expressed about such misuse, in particular about suicide websites and the influence they may have over vulnerable people, especially young people.
Doctors were forced to allow a young woman to die as she had made a "living will" requesting no medical help if she attempted suicide. They would have risked breaking the law by treating Kerrie Wooltorton, 26, of Norwich, an inquest heard. Miss Wooltorton wrote her living will in September 2007, asking for no intervention if she tried to take her own life.
Following advance directives in emergencies throws up some complicated problems, as Stephen Bonner and colleagues found. We asked an emergency doctor, a medical defence adviser, and an ethicist what they would do in the circumstances
Two daughters who sat with their mother for four days as she lay dying will not be charged with assisted suicide. Jane Aiken Hodge, 91, who had high blood pressure and mild leukaemia, held a “Do not resuscitate” card. She wrote a letter to her GP saying she did not want to be revived when she took an overdose of sleeping pills in June last year. Michael Jennings, a reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that he was satisfied the death was an independent suicide.
At least one in 10 suicides in England is by someone with a chronic or terminal illness, found researchers who tried to obtain information on the subject from local health authorities. Coroners told them that people were increasingly killing themselves at a younger age, rather than waiting until they were in severe pain in their 80s or 90s. And two of 15 coroners interviewed also indicated they deliberately avoided probing into possible cases of assisted suicide - which remains illegal in Britain - "often for fear of causing problems for the friends and family left behind".
Most senior doctors in England and Wales feel that rational suicide is possible. There was no association with specialty. Strong religious belief was associated with disagreement, although levels of agreement were still high in people reporting the strongest religious belief. Most doctors who were opposed to physician assisted suicide believed that rational suicide was possible, suggesting that some medical opposition is best explained by other factors such as concerns of assessment and protection of vulnerable patients.