Five new assisted suicide cases referred to Crown Prosecution Service in a year

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has updated its assisted suicide figures, revealing that five assisted suicide cases have been referred to them in the past year. Humanists UK calls for parliament to legalise assisted dying, instead of leaving an unclear law to be interpreted by the CPS.

Since 2009, four cases of encouraging or assisting suicide have been prosecuted. One case of assisted suicide was charged and acquitted after trial in May 2015, and eight cases were referred onwards for prosecution for homicide or other serious crime.

Nathan Stilwell, Assisted Dying Campaigner for Humanists UK, said:

‘We don’t know the details of these cases but we do know that the current legislation on assisted dying is unclear, inadequate, and barbaric. People who compassionately assist a loved one who is suffering and has made a clear and settled wish to die should be allowed to grieve. They should not be slammed into a jail cell and investigated.

‘Introducing any law at all would be far better than the hodge-podge system we have now. We’ve seen too many cases of people acting purely out of compassion who have been treated like common criminals. What would you do if the person you loved was in pain and wanted you to help them to Switzerland?’

Humanists UK revealed in 2022 that one of our members was arrested at 5.30 am, put in a cell, held for 19 hours, and then subjected to a six-month police investigation, for escorting a woman to receive a medically assisted death in Switzerland.

The person she assisted was 60-year-old Sharon Johnston from Cardigan, who became tetraplegic following a fall at her previous home in Aberystwyth. Sharon spoke publicly about her wish to have an assisted death in 2021 BBC documentary When Would You Want to Die? Humanists UK arranged her participation.

Sir Keir Starmer updated the CPS guidelines on this when he was the Director of Public Prosecution in 2009. He has since committed to holding a vote on assisted dying in the next parliament. 

In 2009, the UK’s highest court ruled that the assisted suicide legalisation was unclear, after Debbie Purdy, a former music journalist who suffered from multiple sclerosis, won her case. She argued that it was against her human rights not to know if her husband Omar would be prosecuted for assisting her to die in Switzerland.

Debbie Purdy would not have been eligible under recent attempts to change the law in England and Wales. These attempts have been limited to terminally ill people with six months left to live or fewer – despite her suffering, Debbie would not have been classed as terminally ill. That’s why Humanists UK supports a more compassionate law