CHAPTER 60
An Act to amend the law of England and Wales relating to suicide, and for purposes connected therewith.[3rd August, 1961]
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:—
Suicide cease to be a crime. 1. The rule of law whereby it is a crime for a person to commit suicide is hereby abrogated.
Criminal liability for complicity in another’s suicide. 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 this 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.
Short title, repeal and extent. 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(2) The enactments mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of the Schedule.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 England and Wales only, except as regards the amendments made by Part II of the First Schedule and except that the Interments (felo de se) Act, 1882, shall be repealed also for the Channel Islands.
