Although NCPC neither opposes nor opposes the legalisation of assisted suicide in principle, we have opposed the recent attempts to change the law on the basis that we did not consider that the proposed safeguards were practicable.

Changes to legislation

A Select Committee of the House of Lords reported on this issue in 2004. It did not reach a conclusion on the principle of whether assisted dying or euthanasia should become legal, but identified a number of issues which would need to be addressed in any future legislation. 

NCPC published a detailed response to the Select Committee report. We welcomed the balanced nature of the report, and particularly the way it identified the significant issues and gaps in the evidence that need to be addressed before a decision whether or not to legalise assisted dying or voluntary euthanasia could safely be made. In view of the magnitude of what is involved, we believe that unless and until those issues can be resolved, it would not be right to change the law. You can read the single-page executive summary of NCPC's response here

NCPC established a collaborative of interested organisations to fund research into some of these issues. That research was conducted by Professor Clive Seale of Queen Mary, London. We published a briefing on some of the key findings from this research which can be accessed here (Briefing Bulletin 17 – End of life treatment: Decisions and attitudes of doctors)

Prosecuting cases of assisted suicide

2010 guidance

In 2010 the Director of Public Prosecutions published guidelines on the factors that should be taken into account when considering prosecuting somebody suspected of assisting another to commit suicide. Our response to the consultation leading up to the publication of those guidelines can be found here

The draft guidelines which we responded to can be found here

The final guidelines published after consultation can be found here 

2012 debate

Members of the House of Commons will be debating the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) Guidance on cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide on 27 March 2012. You can view the briefing we’ve provided to inform parliamentarians here.