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Topic: Suicide Act 1961

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	Legal, religious, and cultural views on suicide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Increasingly, the term commit suicide is being consciously avoided, as it implies that suicide is a crime by equating it with other acts that are committed, such as murder or burglary.
		In Matthew 27:3, the suicide of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, is perhaps a sign of his repentance or at least the recognition of his guilt.
		As in China, suicide is traditionally viewed as a means of maintaining one's honor, perhaps more so - a ritual self-disembowelling known as Seppuku was in common use in Feudal Japan, and while this tradition largely faded out with the demise of the Samurai and the introduction of a western-style society.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Legal,_religious,_and_cultural_views_on_suicide (3413 words)

	Pretty v UK:ECtHR
		If, however, that conclusion is wrong, and the prohibition of assisted suicide in section 2 of the 1961 Act infringes her Convention right under article 8, it is necessary to consider whether the infringement is shown by the Secretary of State to be justifiable under the terms of article 8(2).
		On behalf of Mrs Pretty counsel disclaims any general attack on section 2(1) of the 1961 Act and seeks to restrict his claim to the particular facts of her case: that of a mentally competent adult who knows her own mind, is free from any pressure and has made a fully-informed and voluntary decision.
		Suicide ceased to be a crime in England and Wales by virtue of the Suicide Act 1961.
	www.medical-journals.com /echr.htm (16566 words)

	Suicide (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		In the case that suicide has legal consequences this is reflected in law in that there must be proof of intent as well as death for the act to be suicide.
		Suicide rates are influenced by publicity about suicide of famous people, and even the fictional suicide of a character in a popular drama can raise the suicide rate temporarily.
		The United Kingdom abolished the crimes of suicide and attempted suicide in the suicide act of 1961.
	www.city-search.org /su/suicide.html (2141 words)

	SUICIDE PACTS (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Whilst suicide is no longer a crime (Suicide Act 1961) the killing of another consequent upon a suicide pact remains a criminal offence.
		A suicide pact is a common agreement between between two or more persons that all parties to the agreement should die.
		The burden of proving that the killing was in pursuance of a suicide pact rests with the defence of the balance of probabilities.
	privatewww.essex.ac.uk /~joash/suicide_pacts.htm (528 words)

	ethicsforschools.org - suicide
		Prior to the Suicide Act 1961 it was illegal to commit suicide and anyone who tried and failed would be subject to legal proceedings and possible detention.
		The Suicide Act 1961 brought a change to the law so that suicide is no longer a criminal act.
		A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or an attempt by another to committ suicide, shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.
	www.ethicsforschools.org /suicide (478 words)

	A.C. Grayling - Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, Univ. of London
		Dying is an act of living; it is indeed one of the most important events in life, and because it can be pleasant or painful, timely or untimely, tragic or desired, it is central to the character and quality of a person's life as he himself experiences it.
		The passing of the Suicide Act in 1961, at last making it lawful for a person to end his own life, in itself implied an acceptance of an individual's entitlement to decide the time and manner of his life's end.
		The reason is that the Suicide Act rightly seeks to prevent murder under the disguise of assisted suicide; but because it does so by a blanket prohibition it has caught Mrs Pretty in a tragic trap.
	www.acgrayling.com /Pretty/Pretty1.html (1709 words)

	Attitudes Toward Suicide (UK)
		In the early years of Christianity St Augustine (AD 345-430) pronounced suicide to be a "mortal sin" and a century later the Christian Church prohibited the saying of masses for the souls of those who died by suicide, and they were denied burial in hallowed ground.
		The 1961 Suicide Act repealed the law under which both actual and attempted suicides were held to be criminal acts.
		In Britain at the end of the twentieth century with suicide no longer considered a crime, church membership at an all time low, a general loosening of moral prohibitions, and an emphasis on personal freedom, suicide or taking one's own life appears to be more socially acceptable within the general population than ever before.
	suicideandmentalhealthassociationinternational.org /attssuicide.html (524 words)

	Suicide Details, Meaning Suicide Article and Explanation Guide
		Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of ending one's own life.
		The common means of suicide, roughly in order of use (US), are by gunshot, asphyxia, hanging (there is often considerable overlap between hanging and asphyxia due to lack of expertise), drug overdose, carbon monoxide poisoning, jumping from height, stabbing or exsanguination from cuts, and drowning.
		But hinduism has supported suicide in the form of the now banned act of Sati, where the wife committed suicide by offering herself to the burning funeral pyre of her husband.
	www.e-paranoids.com /s/su/suicide.html (5065 words)

	Attorney-General -v- Able and Others, QBD 1983, lawindexpro
		That Act, by section 1, abrogated the rule of law whereby it was a crime for a person to commit suicide.
		Although he was convicted of offences under section 2 of the Act of 1961 and the Court of Appeal did not intervene, the decision of the court is of limited assistance because Reed's conduct went far beyond anything which is here being considered.
		There will also be cases where, although the recipient commits or attempts to commit suicide, the booklet has nothing to do with the suicide or the attempted suicide; for example, a long period of time may have elapsed between the sending of the booklet and the attempt.
	www.swarb.co.uk /c/qbd/1983attgen_able.html (5481 words)

	ethicsforschools.org - suicide
		Christians who have become depressed and attempted suicide have often found themselves lonely and isolated and unable to share their difficulties with fellow Christians; feeling guilty, that in some measure their difficulties have been due to a lack of faith.
		The psychodynamics of their acts are complex and it is not always easy to assess the motive behind any given episode.
		If suicide and self-harm are viewed as a 'last resort', then plainly there is a need for appropriate help and, if necessary, treatment at an early stage of an individual's distress.
	www.ethicsforschools.org /suicide/paradox.htm (1573 words)

	Mediablast Contemporary Arts - Archive - 7-23270
		The rule of law whereby it is a crime for a person to commit suicide is hereby abrogated.
		During the performance all of the sounds that she made were being picked up by the microphones and sent through to a recording booth, where Phillip Ryder manipulated the sounds through feedback looping.
		As he returns to his place in the space he hands the final piece of chipboard to a random member of the audience, a simplistic suicide note, Suicide is not illegal I am doing nothing wrong.
	blastart.tripod.com /7-23270.html (558 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Diane Pretty, who is in an advanced stage of motor neurone disease, argued through her barrister that “death is an integral part of life” and asked the three judges for a declaration that her husband may help her to commit sucide without risk of prosecution.
		Suicide is permitted in Britain under the Suicide Act, 1961, but it is a crime to help another to commit suicide, punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
		Mr Havers argued that, by denying her the chance to commit suicide with the help of her husband of 25 years, the Government was breaching several articles of the Human Rights Act, 1998.
	www.mult-sclerosis.org /news/Oct2001/UKAssistedSuicide.html (759 words)

	Guardian \| Lords to rule on assisted suicide
		She yesterday successfully petitioned a committee of three law lords for the right to appeal to the House of Lords against the high court's decision that the law did not allow a family member to help a loved one to die.
		Mr Havers told the court that they were not asking that Mrs Pretty's husband of 25 years, Brian, be given immunity from prosecution for voluntary euthanasia, whereby he would carry out the action that caused her death.
		Mr Perry said this would mean the director having to make a decision amounting to him saying whether he thought sections of the 1961 Suicide Act, which bans assisted suicide, were good or bad law.
	www.guardian.co.uk /print/0,3858,4290337-103690,00.html (411 words)

	European Court of Human Rights - Chamber judgment in the case of Pretty v. the United Kingdom (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Under Article 14, she argues that the blanket prohibition on assisted suicide discriminates against those who are unable to commit suicide without assistance, whereas the able-bodied are able to exercise the right to die, under domestic law.
		The law in issue in this case, section 2 of the Suicide Act, was designed to safeguard life by protecting the weak and vulnerable and especially those who were not in a condition to take informed decisions against acts intended to end life or to assist in ending life.
		In any event, the seriousness of the act for which immunity was claimed was such that the decision of the DPP to refuse the undertaking sought could not be said to be arbitrary or unreasonable.
	press.coe.int /cp/2002/235a(2002).htm (2026 words)

	Surgery Door - list of NHS Services
		Since the 1961 Suicide Act, if a person commits suicide in England and Wales it is not a crime, but anyone who helps someone commit suicide may face up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
		Physician-assisted suicide is when a patient asks a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs, which the patient then takes without the doctor’s assistance.
		Proposals for physician-assisted suicide usually suggest that it should only be available for competent terminally ill patients, who are acting voluntarily and are informed about alternative treatments.
	www.surgerydoor.co.uk /nhsaz/detail2.asp?RecordCode=73 (1299 words)

	death with dignity * judge gives woman right to go abroad for assisted suicide (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		The legal challenge had been brought by her local authority which had discovered that the husband was making plans to assist his wife to travel to Zurich where she wanted to commit suicide in a clinic specialising in euthanasia.
		But as her condition worsened, he made inquiries about assisted suicides in Switzerland where it is legal.
		Helping a person commit suicide in Britain is punishable by up to 14 years in jail but the police had not been clear on whether helping someone travel to a country where it was legal constituted aiding a suicide, Mr Everall said.
	www.deathwithdignity.org /fss/news/ind.12.01.04.asp (585 words)

	German Law Journal - Death, Dignity and Discrimination: The Case of Pretty v. United Kingdom
		Pretty's situation, the Court was ultimately not persuaded by her suggestion that the ban on assisted suicide was disproportionate despite its blanket nature and the lack of consideration given to her individual situation as a mentally competent adult.
		(3) The discretion of the DPP to consent to a prosecution for the offence of assisting suicide is exercised pursuant to Section 2, Subsection 4 of the Suicide Act of 1961.
		Under Dutch Law assisted suicide and euthanasia are still criminal offences but may be decriminalised in certain circumstances at the patient's request subject to a number of ‘due care criteria' or safeguards which, if not respected, will result in a prosecution of the assisting physician.
	www.germanlawjournal.com /print.php?id=197 (6292 words)

	Suicide Act 1961 (-), acts@swarb.co.uk, David Swarbrick, Solicitor, Wrigley Claydon
		Suicide Act 1961 (-), acts@swarb.co.uk, David Swarbrick, Solicitor, Wrigley Claydon
		It may be incomplete, and some provisions are likely to have been repealed or amended, and new ones inserted.
		(1) A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or an attempt by another to commit suicide, shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years.
	www.swarb.co.uk /acts/1961SuicideAct.shtml (149 words)

	[No title]
		The Archbishop of Cardiff Peter Smith, who had made written submissions to the House of Lords on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, sought and was granted permission by the European Court of Human Rights to intervene in the Strasbourg proceedings.
		In his written submissions, Archbishop Peter Smith sets out the guiding principles of the Catholic faith concerning the equality of every person in human dignity and the consequent sanctity of all human life, showing how these fundamental tenets are echoed and reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the ECHR.
		He pointed to the risks of erosion of protection for the vulnerable if any limited form of assisted suicide or euthanasia is permitted under the law.
	www.catholic-ew.org.uk /cn/02/020318.htm (238 words)

	World Federation of Right to Die Societies: news
		However, aiding, abetting etc, of suicide abroad is a matter for the authorities in whose jurisdiction the suicide occurs.
		The assisted suicides of a British couple at the Dignitas Clinic in Zurich has increased the controversy in Britain surrounding the organisation’s work.
		The proposed law would not have enabled the Stokes to commit suicide legally, but one of its aims is to promote communication between the doctor and patient.
	www.worldrtd.net /news/world?id=592 (871 words)

	Diane Pretty Judgement
		But section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961 makes it a criminal offence for a person to aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another....
		Section 2 (1) of the 1961 Act is incompatible with the Convention.
		For the act is hers and hers alone, it might therefore be open to the State, compatible with the convention, to relax the absolute rule in section 2(1) and permit assisted suicide in some cases."
	catholicdoctors.org.uk /Special_Documents/diane_pretty_judgement.htm (1287 words)

	BBC News \| HEALTH \| Right-to-die fight - what next?
		Previously, the act of suicide itself and attempted suicide was also a crime.
		Aiding and abetting a suicide potentially carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
		In particular she is arguing that being required to go on living in the advanced stages of motor neurone disease is subjecting her to ill treatment contrary to Article 3 of this act.
	news.bbc.co.uk /low/english/health/newsid_1519000/1519198.stm (694 words)

	The Scotsman - UK - Woman wins right to commit suicide (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Mr Justice Hedley said it was up to the police to decide what action to take under criminal law in the case, brought by a local authority which learned the man was preparing to take the woman to a Zurich clinic which specialises in euthanasia.
		The judge said Mrs Z suffered from an incurable illness which would ultimately affect every organ and lead to her death.
		The local authority had known for some time that she wished to commit suicide.
	thescotsman.scotsman.com /uk.cfm?id=1376902004 (509 words)

	Assisted suicide -- Huxtable 328 (7448): 1088 -- BMJ
		Assisted suicide -- Huxtable 328 (7448): 1088 -- BMJ
		as to any suicidal intent for fear of exposing them to criminality.
		Doyal L, Doyal L. Why active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide should be legalised.
	bmj.bmjjournals.com /cgi/content/full/328/7448/1088 (910 words)

	UK DOCUMENTARY BLAMED FOR BRITON'S SWISS ASSISTED SUICIDE
		Motor Neurone Disease sufferer Reginald Crew, who is reported to have died by suicide today, said he got the idea about how to kill himself after seeing a TV documentary about overseas groups willing to help disabled and elderly people end their lives.
		Paul Tully, General Secretary of SPUC, said: "If the media had broadcast a documentary about the high suicide rate among teenage remand prisoners which helped more remand prisoners to commit suicide, it would be regarded as utterly irresponsible, and the media would bear some of the blame for such deaths.
		In this case, by publicising the details of the groups involved, the media is promoting death for elderly and disabled people and should be held to account.
	www.lifesite.net /ldn/2003/jan/03012005.html (316 words)

	Lehrstuhl Kirchenrecht Tübingen: Urteilsdienst
		– a declaration that section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961 was incompatible with Articles 2, 3, 8, 9 and 14 of the Convention.
		That is why although suicide is not a crime, assisting someone to commit suicide is.
		In other countries, the penalties for such offences had been downgraded – in no country, save Spain, did the maximum penalty exceed five years’ imprisonment – and criminal proceedings were rarely brought.
	www.uni-tuebingen.de /kirchenrecht/nomokanon/urteile/eughmr020429.htm (16569 words)

	R(Pretty) v Director of Public Prosecutions (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		The claimant, accepting that under English common law she had no hope of success, asserted a right to assisted suicide under the Convention as scheduled to the 1998 Act and contended that if s 2 of the 1961 Act precluded relief it was incompatible with the Convention.
		If that view were wrong the 1961 Act, in decriminalising suicide did not confer a right to commit it and s 2(1), which was applicable to all, could not be stigmatised as discriminatory.
		Since the executive had no power to dispense with or suspend laws without Parliamentary consent the Director had no power to undertake that a crime yet to be committed should be immune from prosecution.
	www.lawreports.co.uk /hlpcnovb0.3.htm (219 words)

	Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia: 27 Mar 2003: Written answers (TheyWorkForYou.com) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS-funded training programmes provide guidance on dealing with patient requests for a medically assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia.
		Similarly, assisted suicide is unlawful under the Suicide Act 1961.
		The Department of Health is not aware of any national health service funded training programmes to deal with such requests.
	www.theyworkforyou.com /wrans?id=2003-03-27.388W.6 (120 words)

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