Law Society urges Parliament to settle legal position of assisted suicide cases "once and for all"

Date Published: 23-09-2009

Following the publication by the Director of Public Prosecutions of his interim guidance on the circumstances in which prosecutions may be made in relation to cases of assisted suicide, the Law Society of England and Wales has today issued a call to Parliament to settle this issue once and for all.

Following the Purdy case in the House of Lords the DPP said he would produce an interim policy which would outline the principal factors for and against prosecution.

The DPP will now undertake a public consultation and will publish his finalised policy in the spring of 2010, unless there is a new legislative framework by then. President of the Law Society, Robert Heslett said: “While we welcome the further clarity given today by the DPP in relation to prosecutions in cases of assisted suicide it is now time for Parliament to decide this issue once and for all. One of the key planks of the principle of the rule of law is that questions of criminal liability should ordinarily be resolved by application of the law and not the exercise of discretion by officials.

“I, of course, understand the difficult positions of both Keir Starmer QC and the House of Lords, in the recent Purdy case, which directed him to issue such guidance. However, it must be preferable on such deeply controversial questions for Parliament to make the final decision on questions of criminal liability.

“This is not an easy subject but in the end it is for legislators to make their views known and not for public officials to essentially decide on serious moral issues on a case by case basis. Members of the public are entitled to have such questions decided through debate and the due process of law, not official discretion” “This issue is not an easy one. Solicitors in these cases know more than most the controversial nature of these decisions and would be the first to accept that there is no easy answer. We know that in the past seven years, 115 people from this country have gone to Switzerland for an assisted suicide and many people have quite understandable and conflicting views on such an issue.

However, we live in an ageing society and advances in medicine mean that people with debilitating conditions can now live for much longer. But this will also continue to raise similar issues as in the Purdy and other cases and we need Parliament to now come to a decision.”

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