This event has been cancelled
Committee examine human rights law and the assisted dying debate
The Joint Committee on Human Rights holds a one-off session on human rights and assisted dying when it takes evidence from barristers, Paul Bowen KC and James Strachan KC, and lecturer in public law Dr Stevie Martin.
The session examines how the human rights legal framework applies to the assisted dying debate. It also looks at how the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to life and freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment, relate to the law on assisted dying. It will also look at the role of Parliament and the courts in this debate.
Meeting details
In England and Wales, assisting or encouraging another person’s suicide is a criminal offence under the Suicide Act 1961. In Scotland, there is no specific offence of assisting or encouraging suicide. Suspected offences might be dealt with under homicide law. In Northern Ireland, assisting or encouraging another person’s suicide is prohibited under s.13 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 1966, which extends the Suicide Act 1961 to Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, euthanasia is illegal and may be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter/culpable homicide.
There have been challenges to the criminalisation of assisted dying brought in UK courts and in the European Court of Human Rights. No case has so far resulted in the law being held to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
In Parliament, a number of private members bills have proposed legalising assisted dying in some form, but none have so far become law.