Published 25 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1264
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1264

News

Former health secretary champions bill to legalise assisted suicide in UK

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The former health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, last week called for a bill legalising assisted suicide in the United Kingdom. In the meantime she has proposed an amendment to the Suicide Act, which she has tabled as part of parliament’s current consideration of the Coroners and Justice Bill. Her amendment aims to protect from prosecution relatives and friends who help their loved ones go abroad to end their lives.

"In the long term we need a bill to change the law to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults suffering at the end of their lives the choice of an assisted death, within safeguards, in this country," she said.

"In the meantime I hope that the amendment I have tabled will prompt the long overdue parliamentary debate necessary to bring the law on assisted suicide in line with the practice of the director of public prosecutions and the courts."

However, the amendment’s . . . [Full text of this article]


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