Changes are needed in the law on assisted dying

I was disappointed to see that Katy Bourne, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, did not put her name to the joint letter to Robert Buckland, Secretary of State for Justice, calling for an inquiry into the law on assisted dying.

This followed PCC Ron Hogg’s call for a change in the law. When half of police and crime commissioners across the country recognise that a law is not working, law-makers have a duty to listen.

Multiple polls have demonstrated that an overwhelming majority of the population support a change in the law in relation to assisted dying.

The current law is failing people, forcing some to suffer against their wishes and others to take drastic action to control their death; and it is the police – not Parliament - who have been forced to make many of the truly difficult decisions, by the application of common sense in these tragic cases.

It is about time that our MPs accepted their responsibility and press for a Ministry of Justice-led inquiry into the blanket ban on assisted dying.

Nikkan Woodhouse

Lead Campaigner for Dignity in Dying Brighton and Lewes