HC Deb 12 December 1922 vol 159 cc2597-8
86. Mr. LEES SMITH

asked the Home Secretary if, in the case of Mrs. Maud Hibbert, recently sentenced to nine months' hard labour for attempted suicide, after a charge against her of murder made because she had agreed to die with another person had been withdrawn, he has received a petition for the remission of the remainder of the sentence signed by a large number of influential men and women and many eminent authors; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter?

Mr. BRIDGEMAN

I have received such a petition; but no new facts have been disclosed, and I regret that I can find nothing in the petition which would warrant interference with the decision of the Court.

Mr. SMITH

Has the right hon. Gentleman any evidence in his Department of similar modern sentences to this sentence of nine months' imprisonment in a case of attempted suicide; and did this sentence take into account the charge of attempted murder, which was, in fact, withdrawn?

Mr. BRIDGEMAN

I have gone carefully into the question, and have come to the conclusion there is no reason for altering the sentence.

Mr. T. WILLIAMS

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of introducing a Right to Die Bill, as there is no chance of a Right to Work Bill?

Forward to