Switzerland and suicide tourism
Following a vote, Switzerland has decided to continue to allow non residents to travel to Switzerland to die with the help of the organisation Dignitas.
Here in England, assisted suicide is still a criminal offence. However, the law relating to life sustaining medical treatment has changed considerably since 2007.
On the 1 October 2007, The Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into force. This introduced Lasting Powers of Attorney for Health and Welfare, and also introduced legally binding advance decisions, commonly known as Living Wills.
You can use a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare to appoint Attorneys to make decisions regarding your care and your health. Your Attorneys can only take such decisions if you are able to take those decisions for yourself. Examples of such decisions would be which care home you might reside in or what medical treatment you have. The Power of Attorney also allows you to say whether or not you want your Attorneys to be able to refuse life sustaining treatment, if you so wish. Doctors have to abide by such a decision, or they could be accused of assault.
An advance decision is a statement made by you specifying what actions should be taken in respect of your health, in the event that you were no longer able to make that decision for yourself. The advance decision need not be in writing unless you wish to include in it, a direction to refuse life sustaining treatment. It is therefore always best to make the advance decision in writing, so that your wishes are clear and cannot be misinterpreted by members of your family who might have different views on such matters.
To be valid, an advance decision has to be clearly worded and must be kept up to date. For example, if you wanted to refuse something that is currently considered to be a risky procedure, and if in ten years time that procedure was no longer regarded as risky, a doctor might consider that the request could be ignored because of the lapse of time.
The UK is a very long way from the assisted dying rules permitted in Switzerland, but the debate continues here and you will see that you can now make more provision for your own future treatment when you might not be well enough at the time to make your wishes known.
Partner and Head of Wills & Probate
Wills & Probate
NRhodes@LawBlacks.com
0113 227 9247
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Nick Rhodes
