UK doctors who hand over medical records to patients who are contemplating assisted suicide abroad will not face disciplinary action by their regulator for aiding a suicide, the General Medical Council says in new guidance.

The guidance ends uncertainty after legal advice was issued to some doctors that they faced a possible charge of assisting a suicide or disciplinary proceedings just for releasing records to patients who wanted to end their lives abroad. Assisting a suicide is a crime in the United Kingdom carrying a possible jail sentence.

A steady stream of terminally ill people from the UK have sought help at the Dignitas …