An Australian man has been convicted of aiding his wife’s suicide, after a court heard he stood to gain hundreds of thousands of pounds from her life insurance.
Jennifer Morant was not terminally ill when she committed suicide.
A jury found that Graham Morant aided his wife to take her life by helping her buy equipment. He was also found guilty of a second charge of counselling his wife to suicide.
Without precedent
Prosecutors told the court that the conviction of counselling a person to die by suicide appeared to be without precedent in Australia or elsewhere.
Morant, from Queensland, will be sentenced next week.
Last year, Victoria became the first Australian state to legalise assisted suicide.
Abuse
Challenging an attempt to introduce assisted suicide in the UK in 2017, the Care Not Killing alliance said: “The safest law is the one we currently have, which gives a blanket prohibition on all assisted suicide and euthanasia.”
“This deters exploitation and abuse”, it added.
The law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland states that any person who intentionally encourages or assists the suicide or attempted suicide of another person can be sent to prison for a maximum of 14 years.
A Bill to legalise the practice in 2015 was soundly defeated in the House of Commons in 2015 by 330 votes to 118.
In Scotland, a Bill to legalise assisted suicide was defeated by MSPs 82 votes to 36.