Assisted Dying in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • T v Secretary of State for Justice
    • Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court)
    • 07 Diciembre 2017

    The second type of evidence which Mr Bowen seeks to challenge is that offered by Professor the Baroness Finlay of Llandaff; this is the subject of paragraph 4.1 of the Claimant's proposed directions. Baroness Finlay is a palliative care consultant who is an honorary professor at Cardiff University.

  • R (on the application of Nicklinson and another) v Ministry of Justice; R (on the application of AM) v DPP
    • Supreme Court
    • 25 Junio 2014

    However, examination of the course of the present case raises in my view serious questions about its suitability for any such exercise. At no stage does this litigation appear to have been approached on the basis that the court should hear primary evidence about the issues.

    The vulnerability to pressure of the old or terminally ill is a more formidable problem. The problem is not that people may decide to kill themselves who are not fully competent mentally. I am prepared to accept that mental competence is capable of objective assessment by health professionals.

    Third, the Parliamentary process is a better way of resolving issues involving controversial and complex questions of fact arising out of moral and social dilemmas. The legislature has access to a fuller range of expert judgment and experience than forensic litigation can possibly provide. It is better able to take account of the interests of groups not represented or not sufficiently represented before the court in resolving what is surely a classic "polycentric problem".

  • R (Purdy) v DPP
    • House of Lords
    • 30 Julio 2009

    I would therefore allow the appeal and require the Director to promulgate an offence-specific policy identifying the facts and circumstances which he will take into account in deciding, in a case such as that which Ms Purdy's case exemplifies, whether or not to consent to a prosecution under section 2(1) of the 1961 Act.

  • R (Pretty) v DPP
    • House of Lords
    • 29 Noviembre 2001

    The subject of euthanasia and assisted suicide have been deeply controversial long before the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which was followed two years later by the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms (1950). But it is of great importance to note that these are ancient questions on which millions in the past have taken diametrically opposite views and still do.

    Respect for a person's "private life", which is the only part of article 8(1) that is in play here, relates to the way a person lives. The way she chooses to pass the closing moments of her life is part of the act of living, and she has a right to ask that this too must be respected. In that respect Mrs Pretty has a right of self-determination. In that sense, her private life is engaged even where in the face of a terminal illness she seeks to choose death rather than life.

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Legislation
  • Navy Act 1727
    • UK Non-devolved
    • 1 de Enero de 1727
    ......S-II. Inferior Officer or Seaman dying Commander to make out a Ticket of his Pay, to be forthwith paid.II ... be hindred from suing for the same, but on the contrary may be assisted and forwarded in their Suits, and instead of an Arrest, which may hurt the ......
  • Treaty of Peace (ROUMANIA) Order, 1948
    • UK Non-devolved
    • 1 de Enero de 1948
    ...... were vested in the first-mentioned Administrator at the time of his dying or ceasing to hold office; . (c) (c) the Administrator shall be assisted ......
  • Treaty of Peace (ROUMANIA) Order, 1948
    • UK Non-devolved
    • 1 de Enero de 1948
    ...... were vested in the first-mentioned Administrator at the time of his dying or ceasing to hold office; . (c) (c) the Administrator shall be assisted ......
  • Treaty of Peace (ROUMANIA) Order, 1948
    • UK Non-devolved
    • 1 de Enero de 1948
    ...... were vested in the first-mentioned Administrator at the time of his dying or ceasing to hold office; . (c) (c) the Administrator shall be assisted ......
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Books & Journal Articles
  • Analysing the Issue of Psychiatric Assisted Dying from the Perspective of Parity: Does Parity Demand Access?
    • No. 6-2, February 2021
    • LSE Law Review
    • Allegra Enefer
    • LLB (LSE) '20
    • 127-168
    The UK is ostensibly committed to achieving parity of esteem between mental and physical health, yet the attempts to legalise assisted dying in recent years have focused exclusively on physical suf...
  • A Right to Assist? Assisted Dying and the Interim Policy
    • No. 74-1, February 2010
    • Journal of Criminal Law, The
    There are few more controversial, or emotive, debates within the criminal law than that which surrounds the topic of euthanasia, questioning as it does the fundamental role of the law in regulating...
  • Physician-Assisted Suicide: Can the Doctor and Patient Escape the Slippery Slope, Together?
    • No. 4-1, January 2014
    • Southampton Student Law Review
    • Vijay Chohan
    • 41-62
    The Assisted Suicide debate has been controversial and longstanding with ethical, medical and legal complexities. Assisted Suicide remains illegal in England and Wales after several Commission Repo...
    ......This Dissertation will consider the recent All Party Parliamentary Group ‘Safeguarding Choice’ Draft Assisted Dying Bill (2012), Lord J offe’s ‘The Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill’ (2004) and Director of Public Prosecution Policy for Prosecutors in ......
  • Social science and humanities evidence in Charter litigation
    • No. 22-3, July 2018
    • International Journal of Evidence & Proof, The
    Carter v Canada (Attorney General) is a Canadian case that famously struck down the Canadian Criminal Code prohibitions on euthanasia and assisted suicide (now known collectively as medical assista...
    ...... down the Canadian Criminal Code prohibitions on euthanasia and assisted suicide (now known collectively as medical assistance in dying or MAiD). ......
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