Coroners and Justice Bill
1:40 pm
Peter Lodder: I cannot see how, on proper analysis, a mercy killing could come within diminished responsibility. In the ordinary course of events, a mercy killing is a reasoned decision, based on wholly different criteria: the individual concerned is acting in pursuance of a request, or on their assessment of the quality of life of the person whom they have decided to kill, albeit mercifully. I do not quite see how they could then rely on diminished responsibility, but in any event I do not think that someone acting in those circumstances could be said, even under present law, to be acting under an abnormality of mind. One of the virtues of these clauses is that they move away from a phrase that has no medical basis; abnormality of mind is not a medical term. I am not sure that I can help you much further.