Work starts on assisted suicide law

Jul 31 2009

Prosecutors are to start work on clarifying the assisted suicide law as Debbie Purdy vowed to continue her campaign after an historic legal victory.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer Ms Purdy said the landmark ruling backing her call for a policy statement on when prosecutions over assisted suicide would be brought "gives me my life back".

She wants to know what would happen to her Cuban husband Omar Puente if he helped her travel abroad to end her life.

The couple were at the House of Lords on Thursday to hear five Law Lords unanimously back her call for a policy statement from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the circumstances in which a person such as Mr Puente, might face prosecution for helping a loved one end their life abroad.

DPP Keir Starmer QC said prosecutors would begin work immediately on an interim policy setting out the reasons why prosecutions should or should not be brought.

The interim policy should be ready by September, followed by the finalised version by spring 2010, he said.

Giving their ruling, the Law Lords said: "Everyone has the right to respect for their private life and the way that Ms Purdy determines to spend the closing moments of her life is part of the act of living. Ms Purdy wishes to avoid an undignified and distressing end to her life. She is entitled to ask that this too must be respected."

With her husband next to her, wheelchair-bound Ms Purdy said: "We can now live our lives. We don't have to plan my death."

Ms Purdy, who was diagnosed with MS in 1995, insisted that, despite her incurable condition, "I want to live my life to the full, but I don't want to suffer unnecessarily at the end of my life".

She said she was "ecstatic" and added: "This decision means that I can make an informed choice, with Omar, about whether he travels abroad with me to end my life because we will know exactly where we stand."