Judges could approve assisted suicides ‘behind closed doors’

Retired High Court judge Sir James Munby has warned that Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill promotes a “secret process”, which could prevent the courts from identifying coercion.

Writing for The Transparency Project, the former President of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales questioned whether it is even the “proper role and function of a judge” to approve a patient’s assisted suicide request.

Under the Bill, he warned that a judge could decide the issue in private with no input from the patient or their family, and without “the public knowing anything about it – not even the name of the judge”.

‘Extraordinary’

The Bill allows a patient to appeal if a court denies their assisted suicide request. But Sir James said it is “extraordinary” that family members cannot challenge a judge’s approval of the same request.

He asked: “What if the judge has adopted a procedure which would not pass muster with the Court of Appeal or, indeed, and even more alarmingly, has arrived at a decision which the Court of Appeal, if given the opportunity, would reverse?

“There can be no appeal – and the patient dies.”

Medical professionals have already identified that the Bill’s ‘conscience clause’ for doctors is wholly inadequate. But Sir James highlighted that not even this has been made available to judges, raising the question of whether they would “be faced with the choice of compliance or resignation”.

‘Troubled’

An experienced barrister has also warned that legalising assisted suicide will keep lawyers “in business for years”.

Alex Ruck Keene KC, an expert on the Mental Capacity Act and visiting professor at King’s College London, said he was “immensely troubled” by the huge legal ramifications raised by proposals to remove end-of-life protections for vulnerable people.

Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is due to be debated at the end of this month, and would allow those deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live to receive help to kill themselves.