Until now all UK health care professionals faced a greater chance than others of being prosecuted for helping people to die because of the trust their patients placed in them. But Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said a special deterrent would now only apply to those directly involved in a person’s care. From now doctors and nurses who help severely disabled or terminally ill people to take their own lives are less likely to face criminal charges after Britain’s most senior prosecutor amended guidelines on assisted suicide.
Read John Bingham’s front page article in the Telegraph.