Seamus Burns questions the ethical foundations
for the prohibition on assisted suicide
David March was convicted of assisting his wife’s suicide; his case, in the crown court, 19 October 2006, unreported, highlights yet again how inappropriate the blunt tool of the criminal law can be in prosecuting individuals who, by tragic misfortune, find themselves placed in the invidious position of having to take criminal action to relieve the suffering of a loved one.
Gillian March was diagnosed with the progressive degenerative disease multiple sclerosis in 1984. She attempted suicide in June 2004 and in June 2005. Mrs March recorded in her diary her desire to end her life many years before. In 1992, she wrote: “It is the only way I can cope, having an escape route if things get too bad.”
Mr March, her husband, left his job to look after his wife, after she became confined to a wheelchair, which he did with enormous love and care over many years. Indeed, Judge Brian Barker, at the Old Bailey trial, said to him:
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