Britain sets out new guidelines on assisted suicide

Sep 23, 2009, 13:48 GMT

   London - Britain Wednesday responded to a lively public debate about assisted suicide by publishing new guidelines that it hopes will curb 'suicide tourism' to so-called death clinics abroad.

   Clarification of the circumstances under which relatives who help loved ones to die will be prosecuted was given by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, ahead of possible future legislation by parliament.

Relatives who help a terminally-ill person to die on 'compassionate' grounds are unlikely to face prosecution in future, while any indication of a financial motive - if proved - could lead to prosecution, according to the interim guidelines, which came into effect Wednesday.

They make clear that helping someone to die remains a criminal offence under a 1961 law, but spell out a range of factors that would either weigh in favour or against prosecution.

The clarification applies to the law in England and Wales, while Scotland and Northern Ireland are due to issue their own guidelines.

   Starmer outlined 16 so-called public interest factors in favour of prosecution and 13 against, while stressing that there would be 'no guarantee' against prosecution.

   'It is my job to ensure that the most vulnerable people are protected while at the same time giving enough information to people who want to be able to make informed decisions about what actions they may choose to take.'

   Among the factors making a prosecution less likely in future are the terminal illness of a victim, a 'clear, settled and informed wish' to commit suicide and the fact that the assisting person is the victim's husband or wife, partner, close relative or friend.

   Charges would be more likely if the victim was under the age of 18, had a mental illness or disability affecting the ability to make a decision, or if the suspect was motivated not by compassion, but by the prospect of 'benefiting from the death.'

   So far in Britain, no person has ever been charged and convicted under the 1961 Act, which carries a prison term of up to 14 years. But over the past 10 years, more than 100 terminally-ill or disabled Britons have travelled to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland to die.

   Wednesday's move was given an enthusiastic welcome by Debbie Purdy, a British multiple sclerosis sufferer who has long campaigned for the right to die and demanded clarification over whether her husband, Cuban violinist Omar Puente, would be prosecuted if he helped her to end her life.

   'I'm really ecstatic,' 46-year-old Purdy said Wednesday. She praised the judiciary for tackling a topic politicians were 'terrified' to touch, and for opening up the debate.

'We believe that dying is very much a last measure and it shouldn't be considered a casual choice,' said Purdy. She hoped that the new guidelines would give people the 'confidence not to make such a decision until the last minute.'