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The quality of mercy

18 January 2007 / Seamus Burns
Issue: 7256 / Categories: Features , Human rights
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Seamus Burns questions the ethical foundations
for the prohibition on assisted suicide

David March was convicted of assisting his wife’s suicide; his case, in the crown court, 19 October 2006, unreported, highlights yet again how inappropriate the blunt tool of the criminal law can be in prosecuting individuals who, by tragic misfortune, find themselves placed in the invidious position of having to take criminal action to relieve the suffering of a loved one.

Gillian March was diagnosed with the progressive degenerative disease multiple sclerosis in 1984. She attempted suicide in June 2004 and in June 2005. Mrs March recorded in her diary her desire to end her life many years before. In 1992, she wrote: “It is the only way I can cope, having an escape route if things get too bad.”

Mr March, her husband, left his job to look after his wife, after she became confined to a wheelchair, which he did with enormous love and care over many years. Indeed, Judge Brian Barker, at the Old Bailey trial, said to him:

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Slater Heelis—Chester office

Slater Heelis—Chester office

North West presence strengthened with Chester office launch

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Cooke, Young & Keidan—Elizabeth Meade

Firm grows commercial disputes expertise with partner promotion

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

NEWS
The House of Lords has set up a select committee to examine assisted dying, which will delay the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
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