New guidelines published in Northern Ireland today ease the risk of prosecution for people who assist someone to end their own lives.
The guidance for prosecutors was issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Alasdair Fraser after consultation with his opposite number in England and Wales. The guidelines in Northern Ireland mirror those in England and Wales.
Each case would be considered on its own facts and it was not a simple case of adding up a number of factors on each side and seeing which had the greater number. In the DPP’s guidance to prosecutors there are 16 public interest factors to be taken into account in favour of prosecution and 13 factors against prosecution.
Among factors against prosecution are that the person dying had a “clear, settled and informed wish” to kill themselves and that they had a terminal illness or a severe incurable physical disability or severe degenerative physical condition.
The person helping should be a spouse, partner or close relative, or a close personal friend within the context of a long-term and supportive relationship.
The person wishing to die should have indicated unequivocally their wish to end their life and asked personally for the assistance of the ‘suspect’, who must have been motivated wholly by compassion and have sought to dissuade the victim from taking the course of action which resulted in their suicide.
Among the factors to be considered in favour of prosecution are that the victim was under 18, that their capacity to reach an informed decision was adversely affected by a recognised mental illness or learning difficulty.
Further factors were that the victim had not indicated unequivocally to the suspect that he or she wished to commit suicide; the victim did not have a terminal illness, a severe and incurable physical disability or a severe degenerative physical condition.
A suspect not motivated wholly by compassion or one who stood to gain in some way by the death would face prosecution, as would people paid by the victim or paid to care for the victim in a care or nursing home.
So would someone who was a member of an organisation or group, the principle purpose of which was to provide a physical environment in which to allow another to commit suicide. That is intended, it is understood, to maintain the illegality of the establishment of a facility like the Dignitas service in Switzerland.
The interim guidance was issued in the wake of a House of Lords ruling and its contents have been put out for 12 weeks of public consultation.
Law Lords backed English multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy’s call for a policy statement on whether people who help someone commit suicide should be prosecuted.
“The interim guidance published today identifies those public interest factors which must be weighed both for or against prosecuting someone for assisting another to take their own life,” Sir Alasdair said.
“Assisting suicide has been a criminal offence in Northern Ireland since the Parliament at Stormont passed the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 1966 some 43 year ago. This interim policy does nothing to change that. That is a matter for Parliament.”
He added: “There can be no guarantees against prosecution and it is essential that the most vulnerable in our society are protected while at the same time giving sufficient information to those who want to be able to make informed decisions about what actions they may choose to take.”
He said in his 20 years in the post prosecutors in Northern Ireland had never had to make a decision over prosecution in an assisted suicide.
PA