Change law on assisted dying, says police peer

The peer yesterday insisted the current legislation was “failing both those whom it seeks to protect and those tasked with enforcing it”.

His intervention came ahead of a key report on whether it should be permitted to help the terminally ill to take their own lives.

The Commission on Assisted Dying, chaired by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, is expected to recommend significant changes to the law when it publishes its conclusions on Thursday on what system, if any, should exist to allow people to be helped to die.

Figures released to MPs recently revealed that police had referred 31 cases of suspected assisted suicide since new guidelines were introduced by director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer in February 2010, following a landmark ruling in the House of Lords won by Bradford campaigner Debbie Purdy. None, however, have led to charges being brought.

Lord Blair of Boughton said the current arrangement meant people must take a “leap of faith” that Mr Starmer “will respond compassionately” and not prosecute, “trading off their respect for a loved one’s dignity against the fear of prison”.

“This snapshot of evidence received by the commission on the legal and psychological challenges facing those already in distressing circumstances describes a system that is incoherent and unsafe,” he said.

“At a time when they should be grieving, under the current system relatives of loved ones are forced into a world of uncertainty that leaves the police and prosecutors torn between good practice and natural human sympathy.

“The current settlement relies on people taking a leap of faith that the DPP will respond compassionately, trading off their respect for a loved one’s dignity against the fear of prison.

“The approach of the current DPP, Keir Starmer, to this sensitive issue has been rightly compassionate, but another DPP could change the guidance.

“We are in a situation where the letter of the law prescribes severe punishment, and yet our civilised society rightly fails to have the stomach to prescribe it.”

The 11-strong commission, including the Tory MP Penny Mordaunt, Canon James Woodward and Dr Carole Dacombe from St Peter’s Hospice, was set up by think-tank Demos.

It has taken evidence from legal, medical and religious experts, and people with personal experience – such as Alan Cutkelvin Rees, who helped his partner, Raymond Cutkelvin, to travel to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to die in 2007, and Ms Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis and launched her legal fight for guidance on whether her husband would be charged if he helped her travel abroad to end her life.

The case went to the House of Lords which gave a landmark ruling that there needed to be a policy statement outlining the circumstances in which there might be a prosecution.

Subsequent guidelines from Mr Starmer stressed the motives of those assisting suicide would be at the centre of the decision over possible prosecution.

Lord Blair said the report would make many recommendations and hold many caveats. “The creation of a humane, coherent and enforceable framework of law will be one of them,” he said. He also raised concerns over the “lack of clarity” for doctors about what constitutes providing “assistance” to someone to take their own life.

Giving evidence, Mr Starmer insisted current guidance “works well”, although he declined to say whether he thought the law should be changed.

David Cameron has previously signalled his opposition to changing the law on assisted suicide.

A spokesman for Care Not Killing said: “The report does not add a single new argument or fact to the debate on assisted suicide and euthanasia. It was paid for by the supporters of euthanasia and nine of the 12 members on the commission are known backers of changing the law.”