Website: Home
Page About Us
Healing Sessions The Energies Training Courses Training Manuals Information Centre Newsletters
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Legal Guidance -
Suicide
This Guidance Notice seeks
to give information to healers in
Please note that I am not a
qualified legal practitioner and healers affected by this legislation should
seek professional legal advice as appropriate.
Please read the introductory
guidance on the legislative process in the
Chapter 60 of the Suicide
Act 1961 is reproduced below under the terms of Crown
Copyright Policy Guidance issued by HMSO (Her Majesty’s Stationery
Office). Copyright is owned by the Crown
and information on reproduction rights may be found on the HMSO website at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/crown-copyright/copyright-guidance/reproduction-of-legislation.htm
.
Background
At some point, the current
physical life ends for all of us. This can be through natural causes. As
advised in my training manuals, the cellular division process in the physical
body is heavily dependent upon the enzyme telemerase.
As we age, the production of telemerase slows down
which disrupts the cell division process and causes deterioration of the
physical body. This deterioration reduces the body’s ability to fight disease
and infection and can result also in organ and system failure. Death can also
take place early due to other factors such as accident and injury, poisoning,
incorrect nutrition, cancer, etc.. As healers, we will
from time to time be called to assist people who have been told that they have
a terminal condition or who have been told that there is a high probability of
death in the coming months. Sometimes
the clients concerned will be suffering unbearable pain or depression and would
be happier to pass on rather than to try to remain alive. As healers, we know
that when a person dies, the stream of consciousness of the person does not die
but merely moves to a higher energy frequency outside of the physical body. It
is only the physical body that dies. The natural instinct for a healer would be
to do the best for the person from the holistic perspective, not only for the
remaining time in the physical body but also to help prepare for the transition
of passing on by working with the client to clear as much emotional and mental
baggage as possible. The law has its own perspective for such situations. The
relevant legislation in
Healers need to understand that if
somebody has decided to commit suicide either proactively or passively (for
example by refusing to take the medication prescribed by medical professionals
that is supporting the ongoing physical assistance) and that if the healer is
aware of this, the healer automatically will be in a situation where he or she
could be accused of aiding suicide.
Healers also need to be aware than when
attending a person likely to die in the presence of their friends and
relatives, the words that the healer uses with the client could be liable to
misinterpretation by the friends and relatives and the healer could unwittingly
be placed in the situation where he or she could be accused of aiding somebody
to die. This is more likely if the friends and relatives are emotionally
distressed because of the situation with the client and are not in a rational
frame of mind. Additionally, words used could also be misinterpreted by the
client.
Healers should not make any comment on
medication prescribed by the medical professionals and should not seek to
encourage the client in any way not to take medication as prescribed. Healers
should not seek to encourage the client to supplement prescribed medicines with
herbal or similar products as the supplementary products could affect adversely
the impact of the prescribed medication.
My guidance to people who have learned
the energies with me, therefore, is to read the legislation below and to work
out how they will approach situations where they are called to assist people
with terminal conditions. I would suggest considering explaining the law to
clients at the outset and advise them clearly what you can or cannot help with
in the context of the law. It might be helpful to give this to the client in
written form. Should you feel that it is likely that the client wants physical
life to end, I would also suggest that you advise quite clearly that you will
not be able to attend the client if you know that he or she is trying to pass
on. I would also suggest that at each visit you consider making enquiries about
any medication prescribed by the medical professionals and in a discrete way
check if possible that this has all been taken. I would suggest that you
consider being somewhat circumspect or cautious about what you say about
matters of life and death in front of friends and relatives. Additionally, if
you know or suspect that friends or relatives might have the intention to help
a person commit suicide, the requirement for client confidentiality does not
apply if the law is likely to be broken or is being broken and you should take
advice about reporting the matter to the police. This might all sound somewhat
cold hearted and unsupportive of the client. However, we all have a duty to
look after ourselves and need to be in a position where our actions cannot be
considered to breach the relevant legislation.
You might feel it appropriate to take
independent advice about this area from any professional alternative therapy
body that you belong to or from your local Citizens Advice Bureau. It might
also be prudent to check for any guidance from your insurance company in the
context of insurance taken out for your work.
Could
visitors to this website please note that the Suicide Act to which I refer is
legislation that was passed originally for
Reproduction
of the legislation
Suicide
Act, 1961.
9&10 ELIZ.2 CH.60.
CHAPTER 60
An Act to amend the law of
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty,
by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the
same, as follows:-
1. The
rule of law, whereby it is a crime for a person to commit suicide is hereby
abrogated.
2. (1) A person who aids,
abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or an attempt by another to
commit suicide, shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for
a term not exceeding fourteen years.
(2) If on
the trial of an indictment for murder or manslaughter it is proved that the
accused aided, abetted, counselled or procured the suicide of the person in
question, the jury may find him guilty of that offence.
(3)The enactments mentioned in the first column
of the first Schedule to the Act shall have effect subject to the amendments
provided for in the second column (which preserve in relation to offences under
this section the previous operation of those enactments in relation to murder
or manslaughter).
(4) An indictment for an offence under this
section shall not be triable by a court of quarter
sessions; and (subject to sections thirteen and forty of the Children and Young
Persons Act, 1933, as applied by subsection (3) above) no proceedings shall be
instituted for an offence under this section except by or with the consent of
the Director of Public Prosecutions.
3.(1)This
Act may be cited as the Suicide Act, 1961.
(2)The enactments mentioned in the Second
Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third
column of the Schedule.
(3)This Act shall extend to
SCHEDULES
FIRST
SCHEDULE
ADAPTATION
OF ENACTMENTS RELATING TO MURDER OR MANSLAUGHTER
|
PART
1 AMENDMENTS
LIMITED TO |
|
|
Enactment
and Subject Matter The Coroners (Amendment) Act, 1926 – Section twenty (Effect on coroners’ duties of
prosecution for murder, etc.). The Children and Young Persons Act, 1933 – First
Schedule (Offences to which special provisions of the Act apply). |
Amendment The references to murder, manslaughter or
infanticide shall also apply to aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring
suicide. The references to the murder or manslaughter of a
child or young person shall apply also to aiding, abetting, counselling or
procuring the suicide of a child or young person. |
|
PART
II AMENDMENTS
NOT LIMITED TO |
|
|
The Extradition Act, 1870 – First Schedule (List of extradition crimes) The Visiting Forces Act, 1952 – Section seven (Effect on coroners’ duties in Paragraph 1 of the Schedule (Offences not triable by courts of The Army Act, 1955 – Subsections (4) and (5) of section seventy
(Exclusion of court martial jurisdiction over certain offences committed in
the The Air Force Act, 1955 – Subsections (4) and (5) of section seventy
(Exclusion of court martial jurisdiction over certain offences committed in
the The Naval Discipline Act, 1957 – Subsection (2) of section forty eight (Exclusion of court martial
jurisdiction over certain offences committed in the |
The list of crimes shall include aiding, abetting,
counselling or procuring suicide. The definition of ‘‘homicide’’ in subsection (6)
shall have effect as if after the references to murder, manslaughter and
infanticide there were inserted a reference to aiding, abetting, counselling
or procuring suicide. In sub-paragraph (a) (which provides that murder
and certain other offences are to be comprised in the expression ‘‘offences
against the person’’) after the word ‘‘assault’’ there shall be inserted the
words ‘‘ and any offence of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring
suicide’’. At the end of subsection (4) there shall be added
the words ‘’In this and the following subsection the
references to murder shall apply also to aiding, abetting, counselling or
procuring suicide. At the end of subsection (4) there shall be added
the words ‘’In this and the following subsection the
references to murder shall apply also to aiding, abetting, counselling or
procuring suicide. At the end of subsection (4) there shall be added
the words ‘’In this and the following subsection the
references to murder shall apply also to aiding, abetting, counselling or
procuring suicide. |
SECOND
SCHEDULE
REPEALS
|
Session
and Chapter |
Short
Title |
Extent
of Repeal |
|
33
& 34 Vict.c.23 45
& 46 Vict.c.19 15
& 16 Geo.6, and 1 Eliz.2. c.55 5
& 6 Eliz.2 c.11 |
The
Forfeiture Act, 1870 The
Interments (felo de se) Act, 1882 The
Magistrates’Courts Act, 1952 The
Homicide Act, 1957 |
In
section one, the words ‘‘or felo de se’’. The
whole Act Paragraph
15 of the First Schedule (except as respects proceedings commenced before the
commencement of this Act). In
section four, in subsection (1) and in subsection (2), the words ‘‘killing
himself or’’. |
Date of posting:
30th January 2007
________________________________________________________________________________
www.healingenergies-at-londonwest.com info@healingenergies-at-londonwest.com
healingenergies -at- londonwest
Telephone
________________________________________________________________________________