Legalising assisted suicide: keeping sight of the fundamental issues: commentary on… crossing the rubicon?

Abstract

Assisting another person’s suicide is a criminal offence in England and Wales, although the offence is rare and the law allows for charges not to be brought where there has been no criminal intent. Campaigners for ‘assisted dying’ want something else – a law licensing assisted suicide in advance for certain groups of people in certain circumstances. The present law has been challenged in the courts, hitherto unsuccessfully, as incompatible with article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Supreme Court has taken the view that, given its social policy implications, this is a matter that Parliament is better placed to consider than the courts.