I’ll be writing more on my own next week on this, but the Director of of Public Prosecutions in the UK issued his long-awaited “interim guidelines” on prosecutions in cases of friends/family assisting family members traveling to Switzerland to commit suicide.
William Peace at Bad Cripple writes that the guidelines are a slam dunk for assisted suicide:
I knew the guidelines released by Keir Starmer would be a victory for advocates of assisted suicide but I had no idea just how lopsided they would be. The new guidelines that go into force today may only be interim guidelines and are subject to debate before a final version is issued next year. However, don’t let this technicality fool you nor be swayed by misleading statements by Keir Starmer who maintains “Assisted suicide has been a criminal offense for nearly 50 years and my interim policy does nothing to change that”. Mr. Starmer is correct, assisted suicide is still against the law in Britain but if one actually commits this crime the odds of being prosecuted are non existent. Again, don’t be misled by statement such as this: “There are no guarantees against prosecution and it is my job to ensure that the most vulnerable people are protected while at the same time giving enough information to those people like Mrs. Purdy who want to be able to make informed decisions about what actions they may choose”. What a relief, Starmer is concerned about protecting the most vulnerable. Well, to all those vulnerable people out there I have a word of advise: watch out because your relatives and loved ones can kill you without fear of prosecution.
Like I said, I’ll turn to this myself next week. In the meantime, William Peace has said a lot of what I might have, but said it better. Read the rest. –Stephen Drake