Assisted suicide: how not to break the law
Today's judgment by the Law Lords is -- depending on which commentator you read -- either a significant step towards the decriminalisation of assisted suicide or merely a statement requiring Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales, to clearly state what the current law says.
The Lords are absolutely clear that assisted suicide is illegal in the United Kingdom. The relevant statute is Section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961, which provides: "A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or an attempt by another to commit suicide, shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years."
But serious doubt remains about how this statement should be interpreted in cases where a person takes his or her own life outside the United Kingdom. If that person's partner (or friend) makes travel arrangements within the UK to facilitate the travel of a person who is planning to take her own life, does this amount to aiding and abetting suicide?
If a partner (or friend) makes the journey along with that person, helping them onto the plane, calling for a taxi at Zurich airport to take them to a Dignitas clinic -- have those actions met the terms of the 1961 Act?
What of those cases where a partner (or friend) travels with the person to the clinic, but, at the last minute, the person decides not to go throw with suicide? Could a strict reading of the 1961 Act provide grounds for an arrest of the travelling companion when they return to the UK?
The House of Lords, in its legislative capacity, recently rejected a proposed change in the law (an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill brought by Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor) which would have removed one type of assistance from the scope of the 1961 Act, namely, "enabling or assisting [another adult] to travel to a country or territory in which assisted dying is lawful" provided that the person was terminally ill and able to consent to the required declaration.
One peer, Baroness O'Neill, said she could not support the amendment because "we have to take account not merely of compassionate assistance but of interested assistance and it is extraordinarily difficult to imagine any drafting that would do that". Lord Mackay, another former Lord Chancellor, also opposed the amendment and suggested that it was not necessary because the current system "permits the circumstances to be looked at by the criminal prosecuting authority . . . The fact that they felt that there was no obligation to raise a prosecution [in recent cases] showed that the circumstances in their view made that a proper decision".
The Director of Pubic Prosecutions has discretion in respect of cases such as this, but there is no guarantee in advance that a prosecution will, or will not, follow. Debbie Purdy seeks clarification about what would happen to her husband in the event that he were to accompany her on her final journey. Today, the Law Lords said she is legally entitled to that information. After a public consultation, the Director of Public Prosecutions plans to publish his guidance in the spring of 2010.
Last week, a Times poll revealed huge public support for a change in the law to permit assisted suicide. 74 per cent of those polled said they wanted doctors to have the right to assist in the case of a terminally ill patient who has voluntarily made that request. The DPP has no power to change the law, of course, but he does have discretion in bringing forward prosecutions. One consideration he must bear in mind is the public "interest"-- which is not the same thing as the public's "attitude" to a particular law.
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And of course the BBC will be in the vanguard in promoting suicide. The 10 o'clock news report yesterday was disgraceful - it took Purdy's own opinion of her situation and stated it as fact on the news.
Every time liberals lose in legislatures they try to get judges to change the law for them
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At last a step in the right direction. It is cruel not to given the choice.
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