The decision of the House of Lords in the case of Purdy compelled the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to promulgate guidance as to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion with respect to those suspected of an offence under the Suicide Act 1961. Consequently, the Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide now sets out determining factors for potential c...

Suicidal phenomena in the general hospital can take a variety of forms that can be parsed by taking into account whether or not the patient 1) intended to hasten death, and 2) included collaborators, including family and health care providers, in the decision to act. These two criteria can be used to distinguish entities as diverse as true suicide, non-compliance, euthanasia/physician-assisted ...

BACKGROUND In May 2013 a new Assisted Dying Bill was tabled in the House of Lords and is currently scheduled for a second reading in May 2014. The Bill was informed by the report of the Commission on Assisted Dying which itself was informed by evidence presented by invited experts.This study aims to explore how the experts presenting evidence to the Commission on Assisted Dying conceptualised m...

The November 8, 1994 passage of Oregon's Measure 16, which permits physicians to comply with the request of a competent adult patient with less than six months to live for a prescription for lethal drugs, has intensified the debate over the legalization of physicianassisted suicide following the defeats of similar initiatives in Washington' and California.2 Subsequent legal challenge to Measure...

In general, legal responses to end-of-life issues are not very different in Switzerland than in most European countries. For instance, active euthanasia (i.e. killing on request) is illegal, although it is treated as a lesser offense than murder or manslaughter. Article 114 of the Swiss Penal Code reads, “Every person who, for honorable reasons, especially mercy, kills another person on his or ...

OBJECTIVES To describe the older population's attitudes toward suicide and assisted suicide, and to determine whether lenient attitudes are associated with known demographic and psychosocial risk factors for completed suicide. DESIGN Telephone survey conducted by the Gallup Organization in November 1992. PARTICIPANTS A sample of 802 adults in the United States (541 women and 261 men) aged 6...