[11] Purdy's case ended on 30 August 2009 with the decision that the Director of Public Prosecutions had to clarify how the Suicide Act 1961 is to be enforced in England and Wales.
In 1931 Dr C. Killick Millard, the President of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, proposed a Voluntary Euthanasia (Legislation) Bill for incurable invalids.
[14] In 1935, Lord Moynihan and Dr Killick Millard founded the British Voluntary Euthanasia Society (later known as EXIT and now as Dignity in Dying).
[18] On 10 December 1997, a vote was taken in the House of Commons on the issue of introducing a Doctor Assisted Dying Bill, proposed by Labour MP Joe Ashton.
[19] Between 2003 and 2006, Labour peer Lord Joffe made four attempts to introduce bills that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia - all were rejected by Parliament.
The bill proposed that terminally ill patients with a life expectancy of less than six months be given the option of a medically assisted death, subject to legal safeguards.
[22] In 2015, Labour MP Rob Marris introduced an Assisted Dying Bill based on Lord Falconer's proposals the year before.
[24] The question for politicians in Britain today is why do you force your citizens, people in the most terrible circumstances who are determined to end their suffering in a way of their own choosing, to leave their country and travel to Switzerland to exercise their free will?
This stage allows input from specialists in healthcare, palliative care, and disability, as well as professionals with experience in assisted dying abroad.
[42] In February 2019 a group of MSPs, including previous opponent Kezia Dugdale, formed to attempt to reform assisted dying law in the Scottish Parliament.
[43] In March 2024, the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament by MSP Liam McArthur.
[44] Since health is a devolved matter in the United Kingdom, it would be for the Northern Ireland Assembly to legislate for assisted dying as and when it sees fit.
In 2001, motor neurone disease sufferer Diane Pretty took her case to the House of Lords, for the right to allow her husband to assist legally in her suicide.
[45] In 2008, multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy took her case to the House of Lords for clarification on whether her husband would face prosecution on returning from Switzerland, should he help her to travel there for an assisted death.
[46] In 2012 a man with locked-in syndrome, Tony Nicklinson, applied to the High Court for the right for a medically assisted death.
The judges did rule however that they have the authority to declare the parliamentary blanket ban on assisted suicide to be incompatible with human rights law.
The DPP clarified that only those medical professionals directly involved in providing care to the concerned patient would be more likely to face prosecution.
In 2015, the clarification was subsequently challenged in the High Court by Nikki and Merv Kenward, supported by the Christian Legal Centre,[49] where it was argued that the DPP was making laws as opposed to applying them.
[52] In 2017, retired lecturer Noel Conway brought his case to the High Court for the right for a medically assisted death.
[55] Also in 2017, a man known as "Omid T" with multiple system atrophy brought a case to the High Court for the right to a medically assisted death.
[57] In May 2019, a man who became paralysed in a car accident and now lives with excruciating pain, Paul Lamb, began legal proceedings to seek a peaceful death.
The court stated that Parliament is better placed to rule on the issue and concerns were raised over whether the safeguards proposed by Conway were adequate to protect vulnerable people.