\n<\/p>\n
A woman who accompanied her husband to an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland has been told she will not face charges.<\/p>\n
Louise Shackleton, 59, handed herself in to police on her return from a Dignitas clinic after the death of her husband, Anthony, last December. North Yorkshire police said this week that although the Crown Prosecution Service concluded there was evidence of assisted suicide, it was not in the public interest to prosecute her.<\/p>\n
In England and Wales, \u201cassisting a suicide\u201d is a crime with a maximum sentence of 14 years. A similar law is in place in Northern Ireland. There is no specific crime of \u201cassisting a suicide\u201d in Scotland, but it is possible that helping a person to die could lead to prosecution for culpable homicide.<\/p>\n
Shackleton\u2019s husband decided to end his life at Dignitas, in Zurich, six years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.<\/p>\n
She said his condition had deteriorated to the point where he would choke on his food. He considered options for ending his life and decided on an assisted death at Dignitas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was his choice, his autonomy, how he died and when he wanted to die,\u201d Shackleton told ITV Tyne Tees.<\/p>\n
She sought advice before travelling to the clinic with her husband and handed herself in to police at Manchester airport last December.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had literally been crying for 24 hours and couldn\u2019t see properly and could just see uniforms. It wasn\u2019t actually police, it was Border Force, but they were absolutely brilliant with me. They were just so kind and compassionate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After hearing that she would not be prosecuted, she said: \u201cThe worst thing in my life had already happened. There\u2019s nothing anyone could have done to me to make anything any worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for my children, for my boys, it was lovely that I could give them that news that they didn\u2019t have to worry about their mum any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told the Mirror: \u201cI have had the excruciating pressure of a possible court case being brought against me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my husband had taken his own life in this country the scenario would have been extremely different. I would not have been criminalised, I would have been supported \u2026 However if someone decides to take their life in a foreign country, the family member who is with them is automatically under suspicion.\u201d<\/p>\n
A North Yorkshire police spokesperson said: \u201cThis has clearly been a complex and sensitive investigation which has required detailed examination by the Crown Prosecution Service.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst they concluded the evidential test had been met regarding assisted suicide, it was decided not to be in the public interest to prosecute.\u201d<\/p>\n Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law to allow assisted dying for terminally ill adults, said the decision \u201ccomes as a significant relief to a grieving family. The trauma of a months-long investigation lays bare the cruelty of the status quo on assisted dying in the UK. No one should have to endure a criminal investigation for an act of compassion at the end of their loved one\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n The House of Lords has begun detailed scrutiny of a private member\u2019s bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, brought forward by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. The bill passed its third reading in the Commons in June.<\/p>\n Dignity in Dying said: \u201cThe status quo is not neutral, it is actively harmful. It forces dying people to travel abroad to seek a dignified death and leaves their loved ones facing police interviews, investigations and legal uncertainty at the very worst time in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A woman who accompanied her husband to an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland has been told she will not face charges. Louise Shackleton, 59, handed herself in to police on her return from a Dignitas clinic after the death of her husband, Anthony, last December. North Yorkshire police said this week that although the Crown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[140,5313,4411,141,584,13721,16944,668],"class_list":{"0":"post-28517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-assisted","9":"tag-charges","10":"tag-clinic","11":"tag-dying","12":"tag-face","13":"tag-husband","14":"tag-travelled","15":"tag-woman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}