'We'll consider suicide law guidance'

Published on Wednesday 23 September 2009 22:00

LORD Advocate Elish Angiolini has vowed to give careful consideration to new guidance issued yesterday on assisted suicide in England and Wales.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said that relatives of people who take their own lives will not face prosecution as long as they do not maliciously encourage them and assist only a "clear, settled and informed wish" to die by suicide.

The announcement by Keir Starmer, QC, came after the Law Lords backed multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy's call for a statement on whether people who help someone take their own life should be prosecuted.

Uncertainty remains over the issue in Scotland. There is no specific law concerning the issue, although in theory, someone could be prosecuted under homicide legislation.

Responding to the guidance, Ms Angiolini said: "The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will give careful considerations to the implications of the DPP's interim guidance."

Ms Angiolini, Scotland's top law officer, added that while the Crown "recognised the importance" of the issue, any legislative changes related to homicide "is properly a matter for the Scottish Parliament".

Later this year, Margo MacDonald, the independent MSP, will introduce a bill to Holyrood in an attempt to legalise some cases of assisted suicide.

Ms MacDonald said yesterday that despite the revised guidance, "the law is inequitable and needs to be changed".

However, Dr Calum MacKellar, director of research at the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, said that assisted suicide was both unnecessary and dangerous for any society to accept, as it involved "making a choice about the value and worth of many other lives".

Reverend Sandy Horsburgh, vice-convener of the Church of Scotland's church and society council, said: "We hope the present legal situation in Scotland will not be changed, and that the guidance in England and Wales is not seen as setting a precedent."

The guidance introduced by Mr Starmer does not represent a change in the law, but is intended to make it easier for those helping someone take their own lives to know whether they will face prosecution.

He said: "There are 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 like Ms Purdy who want to be able to make informed decisions about what actions they may choose to take."

Welcoming the new clarifications, Ms Purdy said: "They seem great because it gives confidence to people like me that we cannot make a decision immediately and (Mr Starmer] actually says that he wants people to have explored alternatives, that he wants to make sure that other forms of treatment have been considered before this decision is made."

UNPREDICTABLE SENTENCING

IN SCOTLAND, any decision on whether an individual can be charged, and with what offence, would be for the Lord Advocate, working with a procurator-fiscal.

Previously, assistants to suicide have been charged with culpable homicide, where sentencing is in the hands of the judge, so sentences have been unpredictable.

In 1980, Robert Hunter, a 78-year-old who had ended the life of his senile wife, was sentenced to two years in prison – a sentence which, Lord Cowie said, would have been harsher but for his age.

In 1996, Paul Brady was admonished after pleading guilty to the culpable homicide of his terminally ill brother.