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17 January 2025 / Simon Parsons
Issue: 8100 / Categories: Opinion , Health , Human rights , Criminal
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The assisted dying Bill: all for nothing?

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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has prompted fierce debate on both sides, but is a Bill needed at all? Simon Parsons considers the existing law & guidance

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill put forward last year by Kim Leadbeater MP (which is now at committee stage in the House of Commons) states that anyone who wants to end their life can do so if they are over 18 years old and domiciled in England and Wales, are registered with a GP, have the mental capacity to make the choice to end their own life, and have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish to do so, free from coercion or pressure. That person must be expected to die within six months, have made two separate signed and witnessed declarations about their desire to die, and convinced two independent doctors that they are eligible. A High Court judge would have to rule in favour of the assisted suicide. A patient would then have to wait 14 days before the act of suicide. A

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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