Euthanasia and assisted suicide
[This page needs to be updated.]
R (Purdy) v DPP [2009] UKHL 45 led to the DPP issuing its Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide on 25/2/10. The CPS is consulted on interim guidance from 23/9/09 to 16/12/09. The final guidance was published on 25/2/10.
The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 amends the law on suicide with effect from 1/2/10. The amendments made by s59 Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to s2 Suicide Act 1961 are explained in MoJ Circular 2010/03 below.
On 19/7/10 Tony Nicklinson, who suffers from locked-in syndrome and may want his wife to to kill him, sought leave to JR the DPP asking for guidance on whether it is always in the public interest to prosecute in cases of consensual killing and if it is not, the public interest factors applicable.
External links
Tim Ross, 'NHS chiefs back calls to reform assisted suicide law' (Daily Telegraph, 24/2/11)
Bindmans: Locked in syndrome sufferer asks for right to die with dignity - 19/7/10
DPP Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide - 25/2/10
CPS press release: DPP publishes assisted suicide policy - 25/2/10
Interim Policy for Prosecutors in respect of Cases of Assisted Suicide issued by DPP - Sept 2009
"Assisted suicide: DPP unlikely to prosecute relatives who help", Times, 24/9/09
CPS: No charges following deaths of Sir Edward and Lady Downes, 19/3/10
INFORMATION
What links here:
- Suicide Act 1961
- Coroners and Justice Act 2009
- Public Guardian v DA [2018] EWCOP 26
- Karandeep Sonu Gaind, 'Canada delays expanding medical assistance in dying to include mental illness, but it's still a policy built on quicksand' (The Conversation, 15/12/22)
- Anselm Eldergill, 'A time to live, a time to die?' (27/11/24)