Elderly people should be allowed to end their lives with the help of a doctor even if they are not terminally ill, according to a new campaign group that claims to have widespread support. The Society for Old Age Rational Suicide, led by a former GP known as “Dr Death”, says that pensioners should have the human right to declare “enough is enough” and die with dignity.
The controversy over the policing and prosecution of assisted dying intensified last night when another septuagenarian invited arrest and criminal prosecution by admitting that he helped his wife kill herself with an overdose of antidepressants. Barrie Sheldon, 77, from near Framlingham in Suffolk, said he helped his wife, Elizabeth, acquire more than 4g of antidepressants before leaving her to take an overdose. She had Huntington's disease, a hereditary condition which causes dementia and physical deterioration.
The Commission on Assisted Dying, set up in September 2010 and chaired by former Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, has issued its monumental report on assisted dying in England and Wales. The Commission was funded by two supporters of assisted suicide, author Terry Pratchett and businessman Bernard Lewis, and despite reassurances that the running and outcome of the Commission were independent, some individuals and groups opposed to the practice regrettably refused to give evidence to the Commission. Still, the range and quantity of the evidence, which included evidence gathered from international research visits, qualitative interviews and focus groups, commissioned papers, and seminars, is impressive and can be read and watched here.
ACPO lead on homicide responds to the Mail on Sunday making it clear that where we recieve information or intelligence about assisted suicide cases, these investigations are pursued The police service is responsible for investigating cases of encouraging or assisting suicide involving British nationals whether it takes place in the UK or abroad. Whenever we receive information or intelligence about such a case, these investigations are pursued. It is therefore entirely misleading to suggest that ACPO is advising police officers not to investigate deaths abroad (“Assisted suicide 'is legalised' by police: Secret new guidelines from senior officers mean deaths are not investigated”, 24 Feb). The very purpose of such guidance is to assist investigation, by outlining specific considerations for investigators including the legal context and the need to engage with the CPS at earliest stages of an encouraged or assisted suicide inquiry. This is a complex area of investigation and over-si...
The police service is responsible for investigating cases of encouraging or assisting suicide, whether the actual suicide takes place in the UK or abroad and whenever we receive information or intelligence about such a case, these investigations are pursued. Following renewed guidance from the CPS, ACPO has developed specific guidance for police officers investigating such cases. The guidance encourages investigators to engage with the CPS at the very early stages of an encouraged or assisted suicide inquiry. When the police are informed of suicides that have taken place abroad this involves enquiries that lead to consideration of jurisdictional issues which can be complicated by other nations legal systems. Furthermore the progress of any investigation in part relies on the co-operation of foreign police services and agencies. It also requires any UK police force to be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt the circumstances under which the person died and this can be difficult...
The draft Bill sets out the legal process by which assisted dying could be accessed and constructs a system of safeguards, regulation, and monitoring of the process.
The book strives for as complete and dispassionate a description of the situation as possible and covers in detail: the substantive law applicable to euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, withholding and withdrawing treatment, use of pain relief in potentially lethal doses, terminal sedation, and termination of life without a request (in particular in the case of newborn babies); the process of legal development that has led to the current state of the law; the system of legal control and its operation in practice; and, the results of empirical research concerning actual medical practice.
In circumstances where life-sustaining treatment appears merely to be drawing out the inevitable, it is usual practice for the healthcare team to withdraw aggressive life-sustaining measures, once agreement is reached with the patient and their family. Common law gives doctors several defences to allegations of criminality or malpractice in taking the key actions that withdraw treatment and result in the patient's death; however, the legal defensibility of nurses undertaking this role has not been explored. In the absence of a specific body of law related to nurses taking the actions that withdraw life-sustaining treatment, I discuss the probable legal response by consideri
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they assess the application of the Director of Public Prosecutions's Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide.
Campaigners fear assisted suicide is being legalised by the back door as record numbers of Britons end their lives at Dignitas – while their relatives escape investigation for helping them. The Swiss suicide clinic helped 33 people from this country to die last year – the highest ever annual figure – pushing the total during the past decade close to 250. But police passed only a handful of files to prosecutors over the assistance provided by loved ones, and no one was charged. A police worker even accompanied her mother to Switzerland but faced no sanction. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has recently issued new guidelines to every force in the country about how they should investigate assisted suicides. Although the document is restricted, this newspaper has been shown the section that deals with deaths abroad. It highlights how tough such inquiries can be because of the difficulty in obtaining evidence from foreign authorities.
Assisted suicide Some concern has been expressed in the media today about the effect of the CPS's policy for prosecutors in respect of cases of encouraging or assisting suicide. Assisting or encouraging suicide remains a criminal offence. The CPS guidelines do not, and could not, replace the law. While no prosecutions have been brought since the guidelines were issued, each case is considered on its own facts and merits and any inference that the CPS has implemented a blanket policy of not prosecuting for this offence is wrong.
A terminally ill patient confides in you his wish to pursue a path of assisted suicide.1 He asks you for information and support so that he can approach Dignitas and ultimately decide how and when he wishes to die. What would your response be? By providing a forum for discussion and supporting a patient’s decision would a doctor be assisting suicide or helping the patient to make an informed choice? Neither the BMA nor the General Medical Council offers any guidance on how a doctor should respond to a request for information about assisted suicide abroad. In contrast, I was clearly advised by the Medical Protection Society that “UK medical practitioners should refuse any involvement in the case of a patient wishing to discuss assisted dying, including the provision of medical reports or records that a patient might submit to Dignitas.” In addition, providing such information could be construed as constituting a criminal offence under section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961.
People who stand to benefit financially from a person’s death are likely to be the ones prosecuted for assisting a suicide, under guidelines to be issued this week. The law will remain unchanged but new rules will detail the factors that are likely to lead to a prosecution, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said yesterday. Keir Starmer, QC, drew them up after the law lords backed Debbie Purdy, a multiple sclerosis sufferer who called for a policy statement on whether people who helped someone to kill themselves should be prosecuted. The policy, which will be issued on Wednesday, will aim to clarify when individuals are more likely to be prosecuted or more likely not to be, he said.
Keir Starmer, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, is to clarify whether people should be prosecuted for aiding a suicide following a landmark ruling by the Law Lords last week. It had been assumed that this guidance would affect only cases in which friends or relatives helped people to die abroad, such as at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich. However, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Starmer said the “broad principles” of his new guidelines would apply equally to acts of assisted suicide planned and carried out at home.
Today I am publishing the Crown Prosecution Service’s policy on encouraging or assisting suicide. When it passed the Suicide Act 1961, Parliament specifically required discretion to be exercised in every case and my consent is needed before any prosecution for assisted suicide can be brought. In the case brought by Debbie Purdy last year, the House of Lords understood that. It did not question whether there should be a discretion to prosecute or not. But, accepting that discretion, it required me, as DPP, to “clarify what [my] position is as to the factors that [I] regard as relevant for and against prosecution”.