Law and religion round-up – 3rd April

A relatively quiet week with Parliament in recess, the courts not sitting, and choristers recovering from Easter

Assisted suicide – again

‘Your Death, Your Choice’, a campaign to change the law on assisted dying throughout the UK, is seeking £50,000 in crowdfunded donations to instruct Bindmans LLP begin a fresh case seeking the right to die for those suffering from terminal or incurable conditions who have made a rational and committed decision to end their lives. The campaign is supported by the British Humanist Association.

In Nicklinson & Lamb v United Kingdom [2015] ECHR 709 the Fourth Section held inadmissible the complaints of Jane Nicklinson and Paul Lamb about the incompatibility of the domestic law on assisted suicide with the right to respect for private and family life under Article 8 ECHR. Earlier, however, in R (Nicklinson & Anor) v Ministry of Justice [2014] UKSC 38 a nine-judge panel of the Supreme Court had sent out rather mixed messages as to whether or not the courts might intervene should Parliament fail to legislate decisively on the issue. We shall see what, if anything, transpires.

On “doing God” – or maybe not Continue reading