Jonathan Herring, The Right to Be Protected from Committing Suicide

Abstract

The inspiration for the book, according to the author, was fired by the conversations he had with students who, when faced with the question, ‘[a] person decides they want to die and seeks the help of their doctor. What does and what should the law say the doctor should do?’1 tended to answer that the doctor should facilitate the fulfilling of the request.2 Further questioning would reveal that in their responses, these students were focusing on issues of assisted suicide. They did not mean that any member of the public who would approach a doctor for help in suicide should meet with the response ‘yes, let’s do it, how can I help you?’3 Arguably, this demonstrates that more attention should be given to the legal issues around suicide prevention in the law curriculum. A huge amount of time and energy is spent by professionals, academics, and politicians considering issues of assisted suicide for the very few situations where terminally ill people would like the law’s support for their wish to die, as Herring highlighted in Medical Law Review previously.4 It remains a pressing issue and is one of the reasons why this is a timely and important book. In the conclusion to Chapter 8 he writes, ‘[s]adly, much of the debate around end-of-life decisions in the academic literature, media and legal materials does not discuss these [suicide prevention] issues. Instead, the arguments focus on the provision of euthanasia and assisted dying.’5 One of the key points that the author seeks to highlight throughout the book is that there are positive legal obligations in relation to the prevention of suicide; Herring focuses his argument on suicide in relation to human rights articulated in the European Convention on Human Rights in Article 2 (the right to life), Article 3 (protection from torture) and Article 14 (protection from discrimination).6