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Judges urge MPs to review law on assisted suicide
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent29 Oct 2008
TWO High Court judges today told the Government they must tackle the issue of assisted suicide now.
They rejected a legal bid by multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy to clarify whether her husband will be prosecuted if he helps her travel abroad to die.
She had wanted the judges to issue a declaration to force the Director of Public Prosecutions to make the position clear.
Lord Justice Scott Baker and Mr Justice Aikens dismissed her application but sent a message of support to her and a clear demand to the Government.
The judges wrote: "We cannot leave this case without expressing great sympathy for Ms Purdy, her husband and others in a similar position who wish to know in advance whether they will face prosecution for doing what many regard as something that the law should permit.
"This would involve a change in the law. The offence of assisted suicide is very widely drawn to cover all manner of different circumstances only Parliament can change it."
They also asked that an appeal be heard by three Lord Justices as quickly as possible "in the public interest".
Outside court, wheelchair-bound Ms Purdy held the hand of her husband, Cuban violinist Omar Puente, and said she was "really disappointed" by the outcome.
She added: "I hope the Court of Appeal will take a different view.
"The law has not been changed since 1961 and that binds the hands of the judges now. They are human beings and they have some sympathy for clarifying this.
"Politicians must discuss safeguards to protect people but also to enable them. But everybody wants to keep their heads below the parapet." Ms Purdy, 45, of Bradford, says she has been overwhelmed by support from the public, and is also supported by Dignity in Dying, formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.
Diagnosed with primary progressive MS in 1995, she has been in a wheelchair since 2001 and is losing strength in her upper body. She plans to travel to Switzerland to end her life if her condition becomes unbearable.
She fears that her husband could face up to 14 years in jail if he helps her. Aiding and abetting suicide is a criminal offence in England but is legal in a number of European countries.
Ms Purdy said if there is no clarification of the law, she may have to end her life earlier than necessary so that she can do so without help, and thus avoid putting her husband at risk of prosecution.
During the High Court hearing her lawyers accused the DPP, Sir Ken Macdonald, of failing in his duty under European Human Rights laws.
The DPP argued that the law had been made clear in the 1961 Suicide Act and in guidance in the Code for Crown Prosecutors. There was no specific policy on assisted suicide, nor was there a legal obligation to publish one.
Ms Purdy wants the courts to declare that the DPP is wrong.
Her case is being heard as an investigation is under way into the death at a Swiss clinic of Daniel James, 23, a former England Under-16 rugby player left paralysed by a scrum. His parents Julie and Mark James, of Worcester, said their son said he wanted to die.
