UK: More On Yesterday's Court Decision About Assisted Suicide

Here’s more on yesterday’s UK court ruling allowing lawyers to obtain info that can be used for the assisted suicide of their client.

Stroke victim wins approval to get help to end his life

At the heart of the case described by judges as "tragic" and "exceptional", lies the moral dilemma of the patient's wife.

While she respects his wishes and wants to remain by his side "to the end", she cannot bring herself to do anything which would hasten his death. Instead, the man, known as Martin for legal reasons, wants lawyers and doctors to help him make plans to end his life and to help him put them into action if necessary. more

UK: After Friday's Court Decision, Legalizing Assisted Suicide Can't Be Far Away

Here’s more on the astounding decision handed down Friday in the UK (see below) stating that lawyers for patients wishing to commit suicide can consult “experts” – including doctors – who might be willing to carry out assisted suicide or even euthanasia. Last year I thought that assisted suicide and even euthanasia would be a reality in the UK in 10 years – now I thinking more like a year or two.

Assisted suicide one step closer after High Court paves the way for doctors to help terminally-ill patients kill themselves

High court judges today took a step towards allowing doctors to help their desperately ill or dying patients to kill themselves.

They cleared the way for lawyers in a test case to look for medical  professionals who are prepared to help in the death of a stroke victim who  wishes to end his ‘intolerable’ life.

Lawyers for the patient – who is known only as ‘Martin’ – were also given  clearance to get information from the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where 150  Britons have gone to take their own lives. more

UK: Resistance To Assisted Suicide Continues To Crumble

This news pushes the UK to the brink of a complete shambles as to what to do about assisted suicide. First the government “clarified” assisted suicide law to say those who helped people commit suicide (still a crime on the books) wouldn’t be prosecuted. Now the news that lawyers will not be held criminally liable for seeking out assisted suicide experts for their clients who want to commit assisted suicide. Heaven help us all.

UK court says lawyers can help right-to-die man

A paralyzed British man who wants to die won the first round in his legal battle Friday, when the High Court ruled his lawyers won't be prosecuted if they seek out experts to help him commit suicide.

The man, who is in his 40s and identified only as Martin, has locked-in syndrome after a stroke and communicates by moving his eyes. He says he wants to end his life, and his lawyers sought a declaration that they could seek information about his options — including Swiss assisted-suicide clinics — to help him prepare a legal challenge. more

UK: More On The Proposed Assisted Suicide Guidelines For Doctors

Here's more on the current tut-tutting in the UK around whether doctors can discuss assisted suicide with their patients.

Assisted suicide: GMC to publish guidance

The GMC's investigation committee and case examiners will be advised about what action to take over such allegations.

There will be a public consultation after draft guidance is published.

Campaign groups say there is ambiguity about what healthcare professionals can do when a patient asks for help to die. more

Brits Tut-Tutting Over Doctors Talking To Patients About Assisted Suicide

Here's more on the Brits tut-tutting about whether doctors can talk to patients about assisted suicide. As you know, I think this is silly, seeing that opposition to assisted suicide has all but collapsed in the UK.

Could doctors be punished for talking about Dignitas with patients?

Investigating: Niall Dickson, chief executive of the General Medical Council, said doctors who discuss the Swiss clinic with patients may be penalised
Health watchdogs are drawing up guidelines to help them deal with potential accusations of assisted suicide against doctors.

The General Medical Council is trying to determine what levels of punishment they should face depending on their involvement in any particular case.

Doctors could be deemed guilty of assisting suicide for a variety of reasons – many of them seemingly harmless, such as simply discussing the Dignitas suicide clinic with patients. At the other end of the scale, they may actively have brought about their patient’s death by knowingly prescribing them an overdose of painkillers. more

Brits Tying Themselves In Knots About Assisted Suicide

The Brits are caving in even more towards legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia. Here they're "clarifying" the law. Why bother? In the UK assisted suicide is illegal but when it happens nobody gets prosecuted. What's the point?

Assisted suicide: GMC to draw up new advice

Medical regulators are considering how to deal with allegations that doctors have helped people kill themselves after a patient asked them what support, if any, doctors could give to people considering ending their own lives.

The General Medical Council (GMC) says doctors are already bound by the law that assisting or encouraging suicide remains a criminal offence but believes it needs to clarify how its own investigators deal with cases where no prosecution is mounted but complaints are still made about a doctor's fitness to practise. more

UK: Pretzel Logic To Say The Law Isn't The Law For Assisted Suicide

The legal eagles in the UK are twisting their idea that assisted suicide is illegal by then offers "clarifications" that essentially mean nobody will be prosecuted. So, the law is really not the law.

Q&A: Assisted suicide

The director of public prosecutions has set out new guidelines on assisted suicide.

Keir Starmer has already published draft advice, but has now updated that following a public consultation. He has said he hopes his intervention will bring greater clarity to the thorny issue of prosecution.

Why has he taken action?

Law Lords ruled last summer that there was a need for greater clarity after hearing an appeal from someone with multiple sclerosis.

Debbie Purdy, from Bradford, had gone to the House of Lords after losing her court case seeking clarification on whether her husband would be prosecuted if he helped her go abroad to die.

Her legal team argued that the DPP had acted illegally by not providing guidance on how decisions over prosecutions were made.

They agreed, saying she deserved to have some information about what was taken into account in such cases.

However, Mr Starmer was not asked to change the law - indeed he does not have the power to do that. more

UK: Pressure Keeps Building For Legalization Of Assisted Suicide

The pressure keeps building in the UK to legalize assisted suicide. Here's another wife who helped her husband be killed and who thinks the only thing wrong with the whole event was that the facility to do so was not available in the UK.

Wife calls for assisted suicide to be allowed in the UK

The wife of a Kent man who ended his life at the Dignitas facility is seeking a change in the law in the UK.

Tony Clements, 69, of Deal, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his 40s, died at the site in Switzerland on 25 August.

Michelle Clements called for a change in the law to allow assisted suicide in the UK, and said she did not regret the action her husband took.
Assisted suicide is illegal and carries a jail term of up to 14 years. more

UK: Pro-Deathers Flaunt Their Helping People To Kill Themselves

Well, just like in the Netherlands and Belgium, the pro-deathers are getting bolder and bolder in the UK. They're now so enabled that they are now announcing when they're going to participate in the illegal activity of helping someone kill themselves.

Pensioner to visit Swiss suicide

A PENSIONER is preparing to leave her Eastbourne care home to travel to a suicide clinic in Switzerland because she can no longer bare to live with her crippling arthritis and deteriorating eyesight. more

UK's Dr. Death Flaunts Illegality Of Assisted Suicide

The UK's Dr. Death, Michael Irwin, is becoming ever more strident in flaunting how he helps people kill themselves. This is a predictable response to UK authorities who are now effectively toothless in prosecuting what is still illegal in the UK.

Family doctor 'helped up to 30 end lives' at clinic

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter6:00AM BST 10 Sep 2011Comments
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dr Michael Irwin, 80, said he had given advice to dozens of people contemplating going to Dignitas, but could not be precise. “I never keep records because I never know when the police might come,” he said. more

UK Dr. Death Flouts Assisted Suicide Law

This is what things have come to in the UK: UK Dr. Death Michael Irwin flouting the fact that he won’t be prosecuted if he takes people to to Switzerland fr assisted suicide - a clear breach of UK law.

No prosecution fears for Michael Irwin

EUTHANASIA campaigner Michael Irwin said he was not expecting to be prosecuted over revelations that he would help an elderly woman travel to Switzerland to die. more

UK: The Laughable State Of Affairs Around Assisted Suicide

If you're a little confused about the state of legalized (not yet) assisted suicide in the UK, here's a useful piece that lays out what all the fuss is about (see also below).

New British Assisted Suicide Rules Lead to the Prosecution of No One

Has Britain subtly made assisted suicide (kind of) legal?
Forty-four Brits have been suspected of assisting in the suicide of a loved one in the past 18 months. None have been prosecuted even though, technically, assisting in a suicide illegal for British citizens. If convicted of the crime, a person could face up to 14 years in prison. more

UK's Ludicrous Circumstances Around Assisted Suicide

The fallout over the UK's unwillingness to prosecute cases of assisted sucide continues. How bizarre are these circumstances? Simple - have a law on the books making assisting suicide a crime, then issue a "clarification" saying that assisting in a  suicide is OK as long as there are no ulterior motives (no word on how this is determined). Ax long as there are no ulterior motives, nobody will be prosecuted. I'll bet that the next pro-deather argument will be seeing that assisted sucide is allowed under the law, the law criminalizing it should go.

CPS is failing to prosecute cases of assisted suicide

The Crown Prosecution Service has failed to prosecute dozens of people suspected of assisting a suicide over the past 18 months, it has emerged.
Critics have accused Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Pubic Prosecutions (DPP), of trying to change the law by stealth. more

UK: Government Protests Too Much About Assisted Suicide

After it came to light that UK authorities are turning a blind eye to (illegal) assisted suicides, the government has issued a denial that this is happening. OK, then I look forward to the investigation of the 44 cases of assisted sucide reported by the police earlier (see below). I'm not holding my breath . . .

CPS defends assisted suicide policy

The Crown Prosecution Service has not implemented a "blanket policy" banning the prosecution of cases of assisted suicide, its head has insisted. more

UK: Assisted Suicide Sliding Towards Acceptance

Christina Odone gets it right here, commenting on a recent report that the UK authorities are turning a blind eye to (illegal) assisted suicide.

Britain has legalised assisted suicide when no one was looking

I read the splash in The Times today: prosecutors in this country are turning a blind eye to cases of assisted suicide. The number of incidents where someone helps a friend or relative take their lives is rising; but no one is being prosecuted. more

UK: Assisted Suicide Might As Well Be Legal

Guess what? Assisted suicide might as well be legal if you read this report where UK police have accumulated dozens of cases of assisted sucide which is against UK law, but because of a "clarification" issued a while back, they are likely to remain uninvestigated, let alone prosecuted.

44 assisted suicide cases since CPS guidelines published

The police have passed a total of 44 files to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) since 2009 in which firm evidence was found which could have led to a prosecution for helping someone end their lives. The crime remains punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
However, a landmark court case brought by a right-to-die campaigner that year led to the publication of guidelines which made it clear that suspects would not be charged unless it was thought that they forced the victim into killing themselves or sought to profit from their death. more

Brit Legal System Now Aiding & Abetting Assisted Suicide

If there are still people who think the Brits will prosecute for assisting in a suicide, think again. After considerable pro-deather pressure, the government issued assisted sucide "guidelines" last year that essentially gutted any laws against someone helping to kill another.

No charges over Robert Cowie's Dignitas death

A Glasgow woman who took her paralysed son to the Swiss Dignitas clinic so that he could commit suicide will not face charges, police have said. more

UK: Current Legal Clarifications Of Assisted Suicide

Here's a good discussion of the current state of affairs around assisted suicide in the UK. Most useful, I think, is the reporting of the UK Government guidelines around assisted sucide issued last year. They are completely toothless, focusing on the intent of the death helper, who must help kill out of "altruistic" reasons as a means of not running foul of the authorities. How the authorities are able to verify this is still a complete mystery.

Assisted suicide — Ireland’s stance in a world context

The recent BBC programme presented by writer Terry Pratchett on assisted suicide and euthanasia has again raised the complicated ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding these issues. Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s, followed two people who decided to go to Dignitas in Switzerland to die. One of them allowed the cameras in as he ingested a cocktail of drugs to end his life.

Assisted suicide is when an individual takes his or her own life with the guidance, information and/or medication provided by a third party. more