End of Suicide Verdict?

"The verdict of 'suicide' would be scrapped -under sweeping plans to overhaul coroners' powers and death certification procedures published today," The Times reported on 30 Aug 02. "The term, which has been used for at least three centuries, would be replaced by the more neutral phrase 'death by own actions'. The move is part of a wider plan to scrap obsolete verdicts and to end the stigma attached to the word suicide."

How odd that a review of coroner services which was set up after the conviction of Dr. Harold Shipman should apparently aim to promote even more unnatural deaths.