Court rejects clarity call on assisted suicide

Debbie Purdy’s legal bid to have the law on assisted suicide clarified has failed in the Court of Appeal. Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, wanted to know whether or not her husband would face prosecution if he helped her travel to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. She had asked the court to rule that further guidance was necessary on the scope of the Suicide Act 1961, s 2(1) which makes aiding and abetting suicide a crime, but the appeal court upheld the earlier ruling that the Code of Practice for Crown Prosecutors, and existing safeguards in administrative law, satisfied human rights law and provided the necessary clarity.

However, as a footnote Lord Judge CJ added that the court was not powerless, despite the fact that the discretion of the director of public prosecutions in relation to the promulgation of public policy was “effectively absolute”. “If the prosecution amounts to an abuse of process, the court will dismiss it,” he said. “However even if a defendant were to be convicted, but the circumstances were such that in the judgment of the court, no penal sanction would be appropriate, the court, exercising its own sentencing responsibilities would order that the off ender should be discharged.”