Assisted Dying and UK Law

Helping someone to die in the UK is illegal, but it seems most who do will escape prosecution.

Assisted suicide, whereby doctors or family members give patients drugs to kill themselves but do not administer the fatal dose, is outlawed in the UK. The 1961 Suicide Act makes it illegal to "aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another". Anyone who does, either out of compassion or something more sinister, could spend up to 14 years in prision.

A significant number of people have risked prosecution: some 120 British people have committed suicide at Dignitas (the Zurich suicide clinic in Switzerland) and many of them have had friends or relatives accompany them. None of them have been charged.

However 16 people have been prosecuted for assisting suicide in England and Wales since April 2005.

As was well publicised in September 2009 the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, issued new guidance following a law Lords ruling to clarify when individuals are more likely to be prosecuted or not prosecuted. Mr Starmer listed 16 factors that would weigh in favour of prosecution and 13 against. The guildlines can be seen in full at:

http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/press_releases/144_09/

There is still a fair amount of uncertainty for those considering assisting a suicide. As Mr Starmer says: "There are also no guarantees against prosecution and it is my job to ensure that the most vulnerable people are protected while at the same time giving enough information to those people who want to be able to make informed decisions about what actions they may choose to take."

It is still illegal to assist a suicide, Mr Starmer's guidelines do nothing to change that, but many are calling for Parliament to clarify, definitively, this area of the law.