Prosecutions in assisting suicide cases more unlikely

Friday 20 February 2009 at 8:30 am | In News | Post Comment

Debbie Purdy, 45, from Bradford, who suffers from primary progressive MS, lost her case in the
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Court of purdy_debbieAppeal when the judges said the law, which makes it a criminal office punishable by up to 14 years in prison would apply in her case.

Purdy wants her husband, Omar Puente to accompany her to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland – where assisted suicide is not illegal.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge said that “Ms Purdy and Mr Puente know perfectly well that … if he were to assist her suicide, he would be contravening the criminal law …”

Lord Judge went on to say that it is not part of the court’s function to enter into the debate about the issue, it is for parliament.

The case has made it clearer that criminal sanctions are unlikely in cases such as Purdy’s, which has quickly followed the case of Daniel James, the 23-year-old, injured in a rugby accident, who ended his life at Dignitas.

Times report here.

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