The application of the forfeiture rule in assisted dying cases: Sukhninder Panesar examines a delicate balancing act for the courts
- The Forfeiture Act 1982 confers upon the court a discretion to grant relief against the forfeiture of inheritance rights.
- The forfeiture rule has become a source of much debate in the context of assisted dying cases.
- The development of the case law shows that the courts will not take such decisions lightly, and a very high threshold of evidence is required in such cases.
The principle of law is that no person may benefit from killing another person. The matter is neatly illustrated in the decision of Sir Samuel Evans P in Re Crippen’s Estate [1911] P 108. Sir Samuel Evans P explained that it ‘is clear that the law is, that no person can obtain, or enforce, any rights resulting to him from his own crime; neither can his representative, claiming under him, obtain or enforce any such rights. The human mind revolts at the very idea that any other doctrine could be possible in our system of jurisprudence’
