Thank you for contacting me about assisted dying.
Coping with terminal illness is distressing and difficult both for the patient and their families. These cases are truly moving and deserve the highest degree of compassion. I am clear that debates on assisted dying should never distract from the importance of delivering high-quality palliative care services.
I was proud to stand on a manifesto that maintained that assisted dying is a matter of conscience. A change in the law would only be made if it became the clearly expressed will of Parliament to do so.
At present, assisting or encouraging suicide is a criminal offence under Section Two of the Suicide Act 1961 for which the maximum penalty is 14 years’ imprisonment. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) published guidelines primarily concerned with advising the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) prosecutors about the factors that they need to consider when deciding whether it is in the public's interest to prosecute a person for assisting or encouraging another to take their own life.
The House of Commons has discussed the DPP’s guidelines which were unanimously commended as being a compassionate and measured way of dealing with one of the most emotionally charged crimes in the statute book. However, they do not change the law; assisting or encouraging suicide has not been decriminalised.
The DPP further clarified the CPS' policy on the likelihood of prosecution of health care professionals, to specify that the relationship of care will be the important aspect and it will be necessary to consider whether the suspect may have been in a position to exert some influence on the victim.
I believe the application of the law should be flexible enough to distinguish the facts and the circumstances of one case from another. To this end, I believe that the DPP’s policy offers important and sensitive guidance.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me.
