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| Woman loses assisted suicide case | Woman loses assisted suicide case |
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| A woman with multiple sclerosis has lost her High Court case to clarify the law on assisted suicide. | A woman with multiple sclerosis has lost her High Court case to clarify the law on assisted suicide. |
| Debbie Purdy, 45, from Bradford, is considering going to a Swiss clinic to end her life, but fears her husband may be charged on his return to the UK. | Debbie Purdy, 45, from Bradford, is considering going to a Swiss clinic to end her life, but fears her husband may be charged on his return to the UK. |
| She wanted a guarantee that her husband, Omar Puente, would not be prosecuted. | She wanted a guarantee that her husband, Omar Puente, would not be prosecuted. |
| There have so far been no prosecutions of relatives of 101 UK citizens who have gone to the Dignitas clinic. | There have so far been no prosecutions of relatives of 101 UK citizens who have gone to the Dignitas clinic. |
| Ms Purdy was diagnosed with primary progressive MS in March 1995. She can no longer walk and is losing strength in her upper body. | |
| She has suggested that at some point she may travel to Switzerland to take a lethal dose of barbiturates prescribed by doctors at Dignitas. | |
| Ms Purdy wants her husband at her side but fears he may be prosecuted on his return to Britain where aiding or abetting a suicide is a crime punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. | |
| A judicial review was granted to Ms Purdy on the grounds that the DPP had acted illegally by not providing guidance on how decisions on prosecution are reached. | |
| But two High Court judges have ruled that her human rights had not been infringed. | |
| During the hearing earlier this month, she argued the lack of clarification was a breach of her human rights. | |
| Lord Justice Scott Baker said: "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 would regard as something that the law should permit, namely to help a loved one go abroad to end their suffering when they are unable to do it on their own. | |
| "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." | |
| It is not the first time the issue has been raised in the courts | |
| In 2001 Diane Petty, who had motor neurone disease, failed to get immunity from prosecution for he husband if he helped her to die in the UK. | |
| Several attempts to legalise suicide in Britain have also been rejected. |