Let Me Die, It's the Law

The debate over the right to die continues to rage in the U.K., but a recent law and a new suicide have complicated the issue. The Telegraph reports that Kerrie Wooltorton, 26, who was depressed over her inability to have a child, drank poison at home, called an ambulance, then handed medical staff a letter requesting that they make her comfortable, but let her die. Although they said it was a "horrible thing," doctors failed to revive Wooltorton because they feared assault charges under the 2005 Mental Capacity Act, which allows patients to use a living will to explain which types of treatment they do not want. Wooltorton's suicide took place days after new guidelines on assisted suicide were published, charging that doctors who assist in euthanasia are not likely to be prosecuted unless they stand to gain financially. This case is thought to be the first time anyone has used a living will to commit suicide. Wooltorton drank poison up to nine times in the year before her suicide, and each time doctors flushed it from her system. In addition to her letter to medical personnel, she made her wishes verbally clear—at the inquest a coroner found that she "had the capacity to consent to treatment" but "refused such treatment in full knowledge of the consequences."