This House of Lords Library briefing sets out the law in Canada and selected states in the United States ahead of the question for short debate on 6 March 2017 on whether recent legislative changes on assisted dying in North America provide an appropriate basis for legislation in England and Wales. It also provides an overview of the law as it currently stands in England and Wales, as well as a brief legal history of the changes and attempts to change it.
Assisted Dying Legislation: North America and England and Wales (122 KB , PDF)
Following the Canadian Supreme Court’s decision in Carter v Canada (Attorney General) in 2015, which declared that sections of the Canadian Criminal Code were in violation of an individual’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, change to the Criminal Code exempts certain medical practitioners and individuals from culpable homicide, therefore allowing both voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, subject to a number of conditions. ‘Assisted dying’ or ‘assisted suicide’ is unlawful in the majority of US states, save for Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California and Colorado, allow adult residents of their state, who are capable of voluntarily making decisions about their health, and are terminally ill with a prognosis of six months, to seek lethal medication for self-administration. Montana provides a defence for physicians on the event they face homicide changes.
Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961 (as amended by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009) in England and Wales makes it criminally unlawful for an individual to perform an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person, where that individual’s act was intended to encourage, assist or attempt at suicide. There have been a number of challenges to the Suicide Act 1961. In 2014, the Supreme Court considered the state of the law in the context of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which ultimately deferred the matter to Parliament for consideration. Thus far, there have been attempted amendments and several private member’s bills in parliament that have been unsuccessful in changing the law.
Assisted Dying Legislation: North America and England and Wales (122 KB , PDF)
This briefing examines the NHS long term plan target to reduce the number of people with learning disabilities and autism in inpatient mental health care. It provides an overview of the government’s approach to achieve the goal, examines the progress that has been made and provides a range of further reading on the issue.
The Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019 introduced an opt-out system for organ donation in England. This means that it is generally presumed upon a person’s death that they consent to donate their organs unless they or their family indicate otherwise. This is also the arrangement in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This briefing discusses this policy change and presents recent statistics on organ donation in England and the UK.
The government has proposed changes to how fire safety standards for furniture and furnishings are regulated in England. Scientists and the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee have raised concerns that current regulations incentivise the use of flame-retardant chemicals, which have environmental and health impacts. The regulatory framework for fire safety in buildings in England has also been reformed following the Grenfell Tower fire and the Building Safety Act 2022.
