assisted suicide

On the meeting on 30th Sep. we talked about the new guidelines on assisted suicide. Jim lead us through a selection of biblical passages that mentioned suicide. These included Saul, who interestingly enough asked his armour bearing to kill him, but the armour bearer refused and Saul falls on his own sword. We also looked at the passage where Judas kills himself (and briefly at the other passage where he does not!).

None of these passages really fit well with the current debate which is generally about people with terminal medical conditions being helped to commit suicide and whether the people who helped them would be prosecuted. In England and Wales suicide is no longer against the law (it was until the 1960's) but there is a law against assisting someone to commit suicide which has a penalty of up to 14 years in prison if convicted. The guidance was given as a woman with MS wanted to know that if her husband helped her commit suicide he would not be prosecuted.

We looked at the guidance and generally we felt it was a balanced way of addressing the issue, it did not make assisted suicide legal but did give guidance that could reassure relatives who acted with good motives to help someone commit suicide. We all felt that it should remain a crime with the possibility of prosecution, not least because this shows the seriousness of the act and might help reduce the risk of people encouraging or coercing people to commit suicide.

Some links, the first is particularly good, wish I had found it for the meeting.

assisted-suicide-guidelines-mental-health

assisted-suicide

terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-guidelines

assisted-suicide-law-defences-recognised