LONDON — England’s top prosecutor unveiled new guidelines that could decriminalize many forms of assisted suicide, saying Wednesday that most people who help close friends or family kill themselves aren’t likely to face charges.
Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, warned that there were no guarantees but said those who helped adults end their own lives were unlikely to be prosecuted if they were “wholly motivated by compassion” for someone who is severely disabled or terminally ill.
Starmer was forced to publish detailed guidance for prosecutors after Debbie Purdy, a 46-year-old with multiple sclerosis, sued to force the government to reveal under what circumstances it would press charges against those who help others kill themselves.
Purdy said she feared her husband could be prosecuted if he helped her go to a Swiss suicide clinic and said she needed the guidance so that she could know whether to go abroad before her condition prevented her from traveling by herself.
Starmer’s guidance outlined 29 factors that could affect the decision to prosecute.
Prosecution would be more likely if a person committing assisted suicide is under 18 or if the person suspected of assisting them is a member of a group that lobbies for assisted suicide.
Prosecution also would be more likely if someone helped more than one person commit suicide or if the suicide was “pressured or maliciously encouraged.”
It said charges would be less likely when the person assisting a suicide was a spouse or partner, as in Purdy’s case, or if the person’s actions “may be characterized as reluctant assistance in the face of a determined wish on the part of the victim to commit suicide.”
