“The publication of guidance on when prosecutions should be brought in assisted suicide cases represents a victory for multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy.”
BBC News, 23rd September 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Guidelines will be published clarifying whether people in England and Wales are likely to be prosecuted if they help relatives or friends commit suicide.”
Daily Telegraph, 23rd September 2009
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“People who wish to die through assisted suicide will this week have guidance for the first time on whether their partners, relatives or friends risk being prosecuted.”
The Guardian, 20th September 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A man who gave his father a gun in hospital so that he could shoot himself has been jailed for three years.”
BBC News, 4th September 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“It is not just friends and family who want clarity about potential criminal prosecutions for helping someone travel abroad for an assisted suicide – doctors too may face criminal proceedings for offering advice or assistance under the current law.”
BBC News, 2nd September 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“There are several remarkable features about the case of Debbie Purdy. For one, the case started with judicial review proceedings in April 2008, concluding with the House of Lords judgment on 30 July 2009 – less than 15 months later.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 20th August 2009
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“Guidelines on assisted suicide will apply in the UK as well as overseas, the Director of Public Prosecutions has confirmed.”
BBC News, 4th August 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The government is to consider giving time for a bill to allow assisted dying if the director of public prosecutions fails to come up with clearer advice on when it is legal or illegal to help someone to die.”
The Guardian, 3rd August 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Director of Public Prosecutions should be required to promulgate a policy identifying the facts and circumstances to be considered in exercising his discretion under s 2(4) of the Suicide Act 1961 whether to prosecute a person such as the claimant’s husband for aiding and abetting an assisted suicide abroad.”
WLR Daily, 31st July 2009
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“Debbie Purdy was ‘ecstatic’. It was a strange reaction to the news that it had suddenly become easier to be killed in Zurich. But the real reason for her elation was that the news also meant it might soon become easier to be killed in Britain.”
The Times, 2nd August 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Pressure mounts for assisted suicide to be allowed on the NHS after MS sufferer’s landmark legal victory.”
The Independent, 1st August 2009
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“A former Lord Chancellor has warned that new guidelines on assisted suicide will expose the Director of Public Prosecutions to challenge in the courts.”
The Times, 1st August 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“A groundbreaking change in the law on assisted suicides could become inevitable tomorrow when the UK’s highest court delivers its judgment in the case of Debbie Purdy, whose long legal fight has put her at the centre of the controversy.”
The Guardian, 29th July 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Today I am talking to Lord Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor, about two important and interesting themes – assisted dying and his amendment to the Suicide Act defeated in the Lords recently and secondly his thoughts on the reasoning behind establishing a new Supreme Court and the direction it may, in time, take.”
Charon QC, 28th July 2009
Source: www.charonqc.wordpress.com
“Charon QC” is the blogging pseudonym of Mike Semple Piggot, editor of insitelaw newswire.
“A move to relax the law on assisted dying was thrown out by the Lords on Tuesday night. Peers voted by 194 to141 to reject a proposal to allow people to help someone with a terminal illness travel to a country where assisted suicide is legal.”
The Times, 8th July 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Former cabinet ministers, senior lawyers and a prominent campaigner for older people will today try to lift the threat of imprisonment hanging over relatives accompanying loved ones who go abroad to kill themselves.”
The Guardian, 7th July 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Debbie Purdy and Michael Wenham, both living with terminal illnesses, put their opposing views ahead of this week’s Lords debate.”
The Independent, 28th June 2009
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“A British man has called for a change in the law on assisted suicides after revealing how he helped his partner end his life, by travelling with him to a controversial suicide clinic in Switzerland.”
The Guardian, 15th June 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Under current law if you accompany a terminally ill relative to a clinic, knowing they are going there to be assisted in ending their own life, you are committing a crime. The Suicide Act 1961, now almost half a century old, makes this clear when it says that it is unlawful to “aid, abet, counsel or procure” the suicide of another person.”
The Times, 3rd June 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“A woman with multiple sclerosis is urging the House of Lords to clarify the law on assisted suicide.”
BBC News, 2nd June 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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