영국의 안락사: ‘조력자살(Assisted Suicide)’과 관련된 주요 사건과 입법동향을 중심으로

It is generally recognized that "Assisted suicide" means assisting the victim to take his or her own life. Today the assisted suicide has become a important public issue in England. The main reason for that is a newspaper story which reported that over 100 British citizens have ended their lives at the Dignitas Clinic, a center for assisted suicide in Switzerland. This report provoked the intense debate about several topics, for example, for and against the assisted suicide, legalization of the assisted suicide or improvement in palliative care etc. However, this discussion has failed to change the english law that prohibits the assisted suicide completely. As a result, the assisted suicide is regarded as a crime and the one who gives helps in suicide should be charged and punished according to Suicide Act 1961 S. 2 (1) until now. But recently the DPP(Director of Public Prosecutions) published an assisted suicide-specific policy in England. The policy sets out a variety of public interest factors prosecution for assisted suicide. It is expected that this policy is sufficiently accessible to the individual who takes a decision that affects their private life such as assisted suicide, and sufficiently precise to enable him to understand its scope and foresee the consequences of his actions so that he can regulate his conduct without breaking the law. England is known as a country that imposes punishment on assisting suicide. In this respect the english law is very similar to korean law, distinguished from the german or swiss regulations. Therefore the experiences and worries with reference to the assisted suicide in England must be immensely useful in improving the korean law system and in researching this topic, when there is going to arouse the problem of assisted suicide in korean society.