Later today Keir Starmer DPP from the UK Crown Prosectution Service will publish the long awaited guidelines on the prosecution of people who assisted with suicide. He said so in an article in The Times, more or less also as a reaction to an article by Gordon Brown, UK’s Prime Minister.
His article titled ‘Mercy killing’ is not the same as assisted suicide. We listened to the public and our new policy will concentrate on the motives of the suspect, not on the person who died, accounts for his own arguments and the ones he listened to from the more than 5.000 “opinions” he received. A number of issues are important, he says:
“In the light of recent discussion about so-called mercy killing it is important to be clear about what the policy does not cover. It does not cover murder or manslaughter.
Assisted suicide involves assisting the victim to take his or her own life. Someone who takes the life of another undertakes a very different act and may well be liable to a charge of murder or manslaughter. That distinction is an important one that we all need to understand.”
Read the whole article by clicking here.
Gordon Browns reaction can be read here.
The guidelines can be seen by clicking here.