Assisted suicide guidance applies both abroad and at home

New guidelines on assisted suicide will apply to people who help their loved ones die both in Britain and abroad, the Director of Public Prosecutions has disclosed, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Keir Starmer, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, is to clarify whether people should be prosecuted for aiding a suicide following a landmark ruling by the Law Lords.

Though it had been assumed that this guidance would affect only cases in which friends or relatives helped people to die abroad, such as at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich.

According to the BBC, Mr Starmer said: “This policy is going to cover all assisted suicides. The same broad principles will apply. They've got to apply to all acts, in the jurisdiction or out of it.

“We won't have separate rules for Dignitas,”

Mr Starmer says he would not be arguing for the wholesale changes in the law, but said “Parliament has to speak” on the irregularity of assisted suicide being illegal in Britain but permitted in Switzerland, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The DPP has reportedly been reluctant to clarify the law for fear of making it easier for unprincipled relatives who might want to bring about the death of an elderly relative for threatening reasons.

In the interview with The Daily Telegraph, he provides an insight into the difficulties he faced in drafting the new guidelines.

He said: “On the question of whether this is better dealt with by Parliament, there’s nothing much I can do to nudge them along.

“They’re divided, there’s no inclination to change the law, so we have no choice but to produce this policy.

Mr Starmer did not insist that he would prefer Parliament to rule on the matter, however, he provokes the Government to intervene in such a sensitive area.

Meanwhile, he accepted that the House of Lords judgment gave him a mandate to shape the law.

He gave an example of 23-year-old paralysed playing rugby who died at the Swiss clinic, to illustrate his point that the location of a suicide would make no difference.

He said: “The factors we took into account — whether he was exercising individual judgment, whether there was any undue influence by the parents, whether they sought to persuade rather than assist him — will be as relevant for those acting inside the jurisdiction as for those acting outside.”

The change of assisted suicide guidelines was ordered after Debbie Purdy won her case ruled by the Law Lords.

She wants to know whether her husband would be prosecuted if he assisted her to commit suicide at the Dignitas in Switzerland.

Under the previous guidelines - the 1961 Suicide Act covering England and Wales, those who aid, abet, counsel or procure someone else's suicide can be prosecuted and sentenced to serve up to 14 years in jail, the BBC reports.

Though to date, nobody was prosecuted when assisting their relatives commit suicide abroad.