The issue of the guidelines on the prosecution of persons accused of assisting suicide has come before the courts again, this time in Scotland.

The issue before the Outer House

In Ross (Re Judicial Review) [2015] CSOH 123 the petitioner was a 65-year-old man in very poor health. He averred that the Lord Advocate’s Prosecution Code was

“insufficiently clear and precise to enable a person, who wishes to enlist the help of another in committing suicide, to foresee the consequences for that other person in terms of liability to prosecution; that for practical purposes this precludes either seeking or giving such assistance; and that this represents an unjustified interference with the Article 8 ECHR right to private life of the person wishing to commit suicide.” Continue reading →