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Tony Nicklinson Assisted Suicide Essay

1867 Words8 Pages

On the 20th of August 2012, Tony Nicklinson died just six days after he lost his case. Nicklinson wanted to be allowed to end his life with the help of a doctor after being paralysed from the neck down following a stroke. This is an example of how assisted suicide is regularly featured in the public eye and how there is mounting pressure from the public for the law on assisted suicide to be developed and further clarified. The case of Nicklinson and others in 2014, like many similar cases, has illustrated the UK’s desperate need for the reformation of the law on assisted suicide.
In this essay I will argue that the public are mislead by the media to believe that English judges impose artificial and undesirable limits on their own power to change the law. I will explain how the reformation of this law is primarily down to Parliament as they, as a democratically elected body, can ensure that the whole nation’s view on this sensitive topic is reflected in new legislation.

The Current Law on Assisted Suicide
The Suicide Act of 1961 decriminalised suicide, but assisted suicide remains a serious crime where ‘a person who aids, abets, counsels or procures …show more content…

This was rejected. The Divisional Court stated the reasons for this. Firstly, it would diminish the DPP’s flexibility if they were to make the code more specific. Also, it would be impractical for the DPP to create guidelines that could cover all people who commit assisted suicide not for a loved one like a carer or a doctor. Thirdly, it would require the DPP to cross a constitutional line by creating a scheme that could decide the probability that an individual would or would not be prosecuted. Because of these reasons the issue of assisted suicide cannot be resolved by further attempts to get clarification of the DPP’s

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