SSRN has posted a new article, Justins v. the Queen: Assisted Suicide, Juries and the Discretion to Prosecute examining an Australian case and arguing that prosecutors should very rarely charge defendants in cases of assisted suicide. The author notes that the British Crown Prosecution Service has developed guidelines for prosecutors regarding such charges. The guidelines can be found here.
Under the guidelines, there are sixteen factors that may support prosecution, including failing to discourage the suicide; assisting a person capable of committing suicide without assistance; or assistance rendered by a healthcare professional. The suspect reporting the victim’s suicide to the police and fully assisting them in their enquiries is one of the six factors supporting non-prosecution.
Faunce, Thomas Alured, Justins v. the Queen: Assisted Suicide, Juries and the Discretion to Prosecute (July 10, 2011). Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 18, pp. 706-715, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1883206