Comments on: Britain muddles through with assisted suicide guidelines http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2009/09/24/britain-muddles-through-with-assisted-suicide-guidelines/ Religion, faith and ethics Sun, 19 May 2013 15:06:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Ian Kemmish http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2009/09/24/britain-muddles-through-with-assisted-suicide-guidelines/comment-page-1/#comment-16878 Ian Kemmish Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:09:51 +0000 http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/?p=8439#comment-16878 While one can sympathise with the desire of certain people for hard and fast rules, I think the existing system in the UK is probably best. If the circumstances under which people will and will not be prosecuted are codified by Parliament, then it will be substantially easier for those who might seek to do so to "game" the system than it is if those circumstances are left at the discretion of the DPP. A question, though: I was under the impression that the European Convention on Human Rights did not provide for people to waive their rights (I'm not a lawyer, so I may be mistaken here). If this is true, then it appears that assisted suicide will always be a crime; the question is merely whether you choose to prosecute it or not. While one can sympathise with the desire of certain people for hard and fast rules, I think the existing system in the UK is probably best. If the circumstances under which people will and will not be prosecuted are codified by Parliament, then it will be substantially easier for those who might seek to do so to “game” the system than it is if those circumstances are left at the discretion of the DPP.

A question, though: I was under the impression that the European Convention on Human Rights did not provide for people to waive their rights (I’m not a lawyer, so I may be mistaken here). If this is true, then it appears that assisted suicide will always be a crime; the question is merely whether you choose to prosecute it or not.

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