h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

is it true that its not illegal to commit suicide or attempt to commit suicide in scotland ?


(this is in relation to the 'asking to die' thread)

Suicide and attempted suicide are both legal in the UK as far as I know. And there wouldn't be much point in making successful suicide illegal anyway!

Noggin

Are you feeling a bit morbid today kea

What do you think the law can do to a person if they commit suicide, you can 't prosecute a dead person. I digrese, I'm being

GT

thanks Noggin

do you know if it has always been legal, or if thats a law reform ?

There was a time when it was illegal, but I'm not sure quite when that changed. Nowadays support and counselling are seen as more appropriate responses than punishment.

Noggin

No, it's illegal. There has been stories in the news recently, I can't remember names, someone went to court in an attempt for her husband to be allowed to assist her suicide, thereby ending her pain, they lost.

Another recent story, a man travelled abroad where assisted suiside was legal, he got his wish to end his pain.

GT

ooooppppss you said attempted not assisted, oh well, never mind. Maybe I should cut down

Though having said that, wasn't there a 'Living Will' being discussed a couple of years back, whereby people could state their disire to be enuthised (spelt wrong) if they were in the late stages of a fatal illness, anyone know what happened, whether there is now a 'Living Will'?


GT

Not in the UK. Assisting suicide still counts as murder, legally speaking.

I always liked the fact that when it was illegal to commit suicide, those that failed were put to the death penalty

SallyM

not morbid. bored maybe.

i understand assisting suicide is illegal. but the question is about killing oneself. in nz i'm pretty sure its illegal.

i saw a brittish tv drama once about a medical ethicist. in one episode a woman who had taken an overdose went to hospital to die. the doctors wanted to treat her and save her life. she refused treatmenr. the ethicist was called in and one of the issues that came up was that there, in scotland, it wasn't illegal to commit suicide so the woman had the right to refuse treament that would save her life.

in nz you can certianly legally establish ahead of time what you want to have happen if you become comatose or otherwise unable to communicate. you do this by appointing an enduring power of attorney. that person then has the repsonsibility for switching off life-support. if you don't set this up beforehand the state appoints one and that person may not act in accordance with your wishes.

this doesn't include assisted suicide, just refusing treatment, food etc.

"I always liked the fact that when it was illegal to commit suicide, those that failed were put to the death penalty"

what country was that Sally ?

I've got a feeling it might have been an urban myth, but would have been in the UK, if real.

Been looking for some reference of it all i got was
"You Do understand that suicide is a criminal offense?
In less enlightened times they'd have hung you for it."

Satan (Peter Cooke) to Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore),
In the film Bedazzled?

One article i read said that the body was "abused" if the person was successful, or if they failed that they would wish they were. Think this was all medieval laws, and obviously don't apply now.

SallyM

So far as I know, suicide is still illegal in the UK. It will also nullify any insurance policies the deceased (or injured, if unsuccesful) person may have had.

In cases of suicide, notes expressing the intention of suicide are often hidden or destroyed for this reason.

i just did a web search and got the following :


"Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1966
1966 Chapter 20
Suicide to cease to be a crime.

12. Notwithstanding any rule of law to the contrary (but without prejudice to sections 13 and 14) it shall no longer be an offence for a person to commit suicide. "

~~~

although it is not a crime in england to take your own life, under the Suicide Act 1961 it is an offence for somebody to assist you. under its 'efficiency and performance aims' the government aims to cut the figure of 200,000 attempted suicides by 17% over the next decade.

http://www.sunnyoutside.com/040301c.htm

~~~

Until the passing of the Suicide Act 1961, suicide was a crime and accordingly a person who committed that crime could acquire no rights thereby.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldjudgmt/jd990715/reeves04.htm

~~~

Suicide was decriminalised in the Suicide Act 1961 not out of respect for self-determination (in other words, to facilitate suicide) but out of a desire to help rather than punish the suicidal (in other words, to help prevent suicide).

http://www.linacre.org/advdirec.html

~~~

interesting. apart from the northern ireland legislation i am assuming the suicide act 1961 covers all of great brittain.

Hmmm, I thought the reason for it being illegal was to allow the police to interfere if they found someone about to jump off of a bridge or what have you. If it is not illegal then the police just have to stand and watch, which can't be very nice.

I did once hear of one fellow who shot himself in the head, but as he wasn't that good a shot it wasn't a fatal wound, and he was arrested

































...for illegal possession of a firearm.


Geggs

i bet there is other legislation that allows the police to act in such a situation.

i was also thinking how suicide being legal fitted in within psychiatric sectioning - not sure whats it called in the UK. where they say if you try to kill yourself you must be mentally unstable and so lock you up.

the law surrounding mental health is a joke anyway, due to how recently (1970's or so) they decided to stop just locking you up and throwing away the key.

eventually they will get things sorted out, but not using such tools as labour's mental health act.

there are serious civil liberties problems with both the system as it stands, and recent government efforts to change it into something more draconian.

i'm in new zealand, xyroth. i don't know much about the mental health system or law in the UK, other than what i searched for yesterday.

its in a mess here too. infortunately the consumer right's intiatives to stop so many people being institutionalised got hijacked by the health reformers in the 90s and used instead as a way of saving money. 'oh good idea, shut down psyche hospitals and put everyone in the community' (at the same time as undermining the community's capacity to cope, directly by funding cuts and indirectly by monetarist social policy)

now after a series of high profile murders by people having violent psychotic episodes while they weren't receiving adequate care, the public and media think that is what mental illness is.