The tragic case of Graham Mansfield, the pensioner convicted last month of killing his wife in a suicide pact at their home in Hale, has reopened the debate about assisted dying. Speaking outside Manchester Crown Court Mr Mansfield, who was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter after slitting his terminally ill wife Dyanne's throat, called for a change in the law on euthanasia.
"She shouldn't have had to have died in such barbaric circumstances," Mr Mansfield said. "As far as I'm concerned, as soon as we can get some form of euthanasia in this country, the sooner that happens the better this country will be."
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Assisted suicide remains a criminal offence in the UK, carrying a maximum jail sentence of 14 years. In 2015 the Assisted Dying Bill was rejected by MPs, but the issue was debated again in the Commons last month, while the Crown Prosecution Service is currently evaluating its guidelines around suicide pacts and so-called 'mercy killings.
Here Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, explains why he believes the Mansfields' case highlights the 'desperate need' to reform euthanasia laws in the UK...
Last week saw the sad consequences of the death of Dyanne Mansfield reach their final conclusion, when Graham Mansfield was acquitted of her murder by a jury at Manchester Crown Court. The suffering endured by the couple, as well as being a personal tragedy, highlights once again the desperate need to reform the UK's outdated laws on assisted dying.
Graham ended the suffering of Dyanne, his beloved wife of 40 years, in terrible pain and distress from the end stages of terminal lung cancer, as result of a suicide pact they had made: when things got too bad, Graham would end Dyanne's agony and then kill himself. It's not the first time someone has felt the need to take desperate and devastating actions and it won't be the last unless the law changes.
If Dyanne had made a clear choice in such circumstances to end her life, she should have had that option. No family should have to go through this.
And if we had a compassionate assisted dying law in the UK, none of this would have happened. Instead of a suicide pact behind closed doors with a tragic and traumatic end, there could have been a conversation. The family could have sat together in their own living room and discussed, openly, the options available to them.
This isn't a lone case. Right now, as you read these words, a British pensioner is sitting in a prison in Cyprus facing a charge of murder. Janice Hunter, 75, allegedly begged her husband David to end the agony that had stripped her of any will to live.
David told police he had blocked his wife's air passages until she died in his hands as part of a suicide pact aimed at relieving her of the immense pain caused by blood cancer. He then tried to end his own life, consuming prescription pills and alcohol.
In May this year, coroner David Ridley warned of an increase in suicide pacts between couples who want to die in the absence of an assisted dying law. He made these remarks during the inquest into the deaths of Claudia Forbes, 62, and her husband Andrew, 72.
How many more families need to go through this? By prosecuting people in such cases, we are putting trauma on top of trauma.
How can we as a society punish them for doing what their loved one asks them to do? The Crown Prosecution Service has guidelines around assisting a suicide that informs the police if they should charge someone.
They are currently evaluating these guidelines for suicide pacts and so-called 'mercy killings'. But each police force interprets guidelines differently, leading to ambiguities and loopholes.
Nor will such guidelines prevent some families from concluding that such a pact is the best of a very bad set of options. An assisted dying law would remove all ambiguity around these types of cases and make them safer for everyone.
England and Wales will soon fall behind Scotland, Jersey, and Isle of Man, who are all currently legislating for assisted dying. How far behind these countries are England and Wales prepared to be?
Our country is happy routinely outsourcing compassion and empathy to Switzerland and see no issue with allowing UK nationals to end their lives on their terms abroad. Out of sight, out of mind? Frankly, it's not good enough.
Let's have a proper debate and move forward. Let's look at the Mansfield, Hunter, Forbes, and other countless cases that are so tragically similar. Let's look at what we can do better as a society. We owe it to them and we owe it to ourselves.
Read more about the Mansfield case:
- 'He killed her because he loved her', her brother forgave him, and then he walked free from court - the couple whose story could change Britain
- 'He killed his wife but he's no criminal - I want to shake him by the hand for speaking out': Man with Alzheimer's backs tragic case of Graham Mansfield
- Every harrowing word the judge told Graham Mansfield as he allowed him to walk free from court after killing his wife in 'act of love'
- Pensioner guilty of manslaughter after slitting his wife's throat then trying to kill himself in failed suicide pact
- The man who killed his wife by slitting her throat in 'an act of love'... and the emotional debate that followed
