Disability campaigners fight assisted dying ‘liberalisation’

A bizarre procession to the Royal Courts of Justice in London preceded a legal bid this week to halt the relaxation of rules governing assisted suicide, writes Paul Wilkinson.

The demonstration featured a coffin and a giant puppet of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Alison Saunders (pictured), whose decision in October 2014 to liberalise prosecution policy was being challenged in court by disability campaigners Nikki and Merv Kenward.

Mrs Kenward, a former theatre manager who was paralysed by Guillain-Barré Syndrome in 1990, says that the decision by the DPP was “unconstitutional” and “leaves vulnerable people at risk from dodgy doctors”. She said: “This may appear a subtle change but it is substantive and highly significant. It makes it less likely that doctors and other healthcare workers would be prosecuted if they encourage or facilitate suicide and that places people at risk. It is liberalisation by the back door.”

Judgment was reserved to a later date.