Letter to the Telegraph from former chief coroner for England and Wales
SIR – Clause 29 of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying Bill would prohibit a coroner from investigating any death where the duty to do so arises only because the deceased died as a consequence of the provision of assistance in accordance with the Bill. But for that clause, the coroner would be under a statutory duty to investigate such a death and, if satisfied at inquest that the deceased had used an approved lethal substance to end his or her life with the intention of doing so, would be obliged to record a conclusion of suicide.
Since the coroner’s jurisdiction affords a powerful deterrent against misfeasance, the public may wonder why the Bill proposes to abandon such a robust safeguard. The approval of the High Court is no substitute as it would be given in advance of death and could offer no assurance that the assistance had been provided in strict compliance with the law or that the circumstances of the case had not changed following the Court’s declaration.
If the Bill becomes law, who will provide the necessary posthumous judicial scrutiny of these unnatural deaths?
His Honour Thomas Teague KC
Former chief coroner for England and Wales
Chester
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