Ex-supreme court judge says high court signoff for assisted death unnecessary

A supporter of the assisted dying bill outside parliament as MPs voted in favour of moving the bill forward last November. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

A former supreme court judge has told MPs that applications for assisted dying should not need high court approval.

Lord Sumption told a committee scrutinising the assisted dying bill that the requirement for signoff by a high court judge was “unnecessary and in some respects undesirable”. No other jurisdiction in the world that allows assisted dying has such a requirement, he said.