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New guidance this week on assisted suicide

BBC - 20th September 2009 7:05 pm

Guidelines on assisted suicide law will be published by the Director of Public Prosecutions this week to clarify when people are likely to be prosecuted.

Keir Starmer QC told the BBC factors that would be considered included whether anyone helping in the suicide stood to gain financially.

He said assisted suicide would remain an offence as the law was unchanged.

Labour minister Ed Balls said he hoped Mr Starmer would “err on the side of being very, very cautious”.

The guidelines for England and Wales come after a legal battle won by Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis. The Law Lords accepted earlier this year that Ms Purdy, from Bradford, had a right to know whether her husband Omar Puente would be prosecuted if he helped her to travel abroad to commit suicide.

Read more at BBC.

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