Hewitt backs assisted suicide move

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Former health secretary Patricia Hewitt has launched a bid to allow people to escort a terminally ill person abroad to die without risk of prosecution.

She told the BBC that her amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill is intended to force the House of Commons to debate the issue.

Over 100 people in the UK have travelled abroad for an assisted suicide, and currently the maximum penalty for assisting them is 14 years in prison.

The 1961 Suicide Act makes it illegal to aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another.

But although there have been police investigations, nobody has ever been successfully prosecuted.

Hewitt told the BBC that her amendment was intended to remove the "uncertainty" for those who help family or friends travel to voluntary euthanasia clinics such as Dignitas in Switzerland.

She explained: "My amendment, with the force of parliamentary law behind it, puts into force the existing policy of the director of public prosecutions not to prosecute a friend or family member who travels with somebody to Switzerland or another company in another country for the purpose of enabling that dying person to have an assisted suicide.

"This amendment is really designed to get the House of Commons beginning to debate the issue.

"It removes the uncertainty because at the moment over 100 British people have gone to Switzerland for assisted death."

And she criticised the current system of guidance by the DPP, which is based on discretion.

"What is given by discretion can also be taken away by discretion," she said.

"I think it is perfectly possible to draft a law which distinguishes between someone who is terminally ill and makes their own choice to seek an assisted death and is being helped by their friends or family, and on the other hand, people who quite maliciously or wholly irresponsibly encourage somebody to commit suicide.

"That distinction already exists in Oregon in the United States, for instance."

Hewitt also gave her support to moves to allow assisted suicide in the UK.

"I've been quite troubled by this issue for several years," she said.

"And I have thought very hard about these cases that have arisen.

"My own personal view is that we should indeed have a law on assisted suicide for people who are terminally ill but also mentally competent in making that very grave decision."

Hewitt added: "Should an opportunity arise in future, I would certainly want to introduce a private members' bill on that."

But Lord Carlile, Liberal Democrat peer, suggested that the chance of people being imprisoned for assisting with suicide would be increased by Hewitt's amendment.

"Making the law prescriptive in the way in which Patricia Hewitt is attempting to do will make it much more difficult for the attorney general and the DPP to exercise their discretion," he told the BBC.

"One should not underestimate the importance of that discretion as part of our unwritten constitutional settlement in this country.

"Where, for example, greedy relatives are involved in the decision, as sometimes happens, the law can be used against them."

And he described the current situation as "satisfactory".

Lord Carlile added: "I think it is of significance that none of the top 20 MPs who came out in the private members' ballot this year chose to present a bill on this subject. I think it is one that defies parliamentary draftsman."