Trial
Sir Thomas Hetherington, Director of Public Prosecutions, described the decision to prosecute Arthur as the "most difficult" of his career. Arthur was tried on 5 November 1981 in Leicester Crown Court and defended by George Carman. Like Dr. John Bodkin Adams, Arthur did not give evidence in his own trial. His defence did call other distinguished expert witnesses though, such as Sir Douglas Black, then President of the Royal College of Physicians, who said:
"I say that it is ethical, in the case of a child suffering from Down’s, and with a parental wish that it should not survive, to terminate life providing other considerations are taken into account such as the status and ability of the parents to cope in a way that the child could otherwise have had a happy life."
Carman argued in his closing speech:
"He could, like Pontius Pilate, have washed his hands of the matter. He did not, because good doctors do not turn away. Are we to condemn him as a criminal because he helped two people at the time of their greatest need? Are we to condemn a doctor because he cared?"
The jury deliberated for 2 hours and found Arthur not guilty.
During the trial the Daily Mail published an opinion article about euthanasia by Malcolm Muggeridge, and was tried for contempt of court. Although the newspaper was aware the trial was going on, their defence was that the article was a discussion of public affairs under section 5 of the newly-enacted Contempt of Court Act 1981. The House of Lords held that the article did create a substantial risk of serious prejudice to the trial but, as it was written in good faith to support a pro-life by-election candidate, and made no mention of the Arthur case, the risk of prejudice was merely incidental.
Read more about this topic: Leonard Arthur
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“Looks like we got a trial ahead of us. But it’s not the first time. We’ve had to go it alone before, and we’ll have to go it alone again. We’re tough. We’ve had to be tough ever since Brother Brigham led our people across the plain. Well, they survived and I dang it, we’ll, well, we’ll survive too. Now put out your fires and get to your wagons.”
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“Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident—the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.”
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—Robert Frost (1874–1963)