Police deal with six ‘assisted suicide’ cases over a decade

FIGURES ARE RELEASED AS LAW CHANGE CALLED FOR

POLICE in Leicestershire have dealt with six cases of people suspected of committing the crime of “assisting suicide” in the past 10 years, according to newly released Home Office data.

Across England and Wales as a whole, there have been 322 potential offences investigated since

2012.

Campaigners are pushing for legislation to allow assisted dying for terminally ill people who have the mental capacity to make the decision for themselves.

Under the current system, anyone found guilty of helping or encouraging another person to end their own life can be jailed for up to 14 years.

Campaign group Dignity in Dying said a number of countries have introduced more liberal laws since assisted dying was last debated in Parliament, in January

2020.

The group, which has attracted more than 150,000 signatures on its petition for a change in the law, said it conducted a survey recently which found 84 per cent of respondents supported its aims.

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “MPs must break the deadlock, examine the effectiveness of the current law, look at the way in which other countries have listened to their own citizens and brought forward safe and compassionate laws for dying people.

“Until Parliament grasps this nettle, the blanket ban on assisted dying will continue to cause untold devastation to British families.

“Thousands of terminally ill people die in pain and suffering every year despite the best efforts of palliative care, with only a fortunate few able to access an assisted death overseas at an average cost of over £10,000.

“Without a safe, legal option to die on their own terms at home, hundreds of terminally ill people every year are therefore taking matters into their own hands using whatever means are at their disposal, forced to die alone or beg for compassionate but illegal help from loved ones.

“In the vacuum of Parliament’s inaction, the Crown Prosecution Service has recognised that it is not in the public interest to pursue these cases, but the law remains unchanged and family members still risk prosecution for their assistance.”

The Home Office figures show that, in the past 10 years, there were 54 crimes of aiding suicide recorded across England and Wales in 2021, a fall of 18 per cent from 66 in 2020.

However, offences rose to a decade high during Covid, rising by 43 per cent from 46 in 2019.

While the pandemic may have had an impact on crimes of aiding suicide, particularly with access to face-to-face healthcare restricted by the virus, cases had already been rising since 2016, when there were 26 offences.

Nationally, only two offences committed in the last three years have resulted in someone being charged.

In seven out of 10 cases over that period, no action was taken against the offender, either because of problems with evidence or prosecution being deemed not in the public interest.