Suicide law campaigner Debbie Purdy hopes for crucial law lords ruling
Debbie Purdy is expected to secure the backing of the highest court in the land today with an historic final ruling on her plea for clarity in the law on assisted suicide.
Legal experts believe that the law lords will back Ms Purdy, 46, who who has multiple sclerosis, in her request for a declaration by the Director of Public Prosecutions on his policy for bringing prosecutions in such cases.
Such a ruling would give hope to thousands of people who, like Ms Purdy, may want to know in what circumstances prosecutions would be brought against those who helped relatives to die. Importantly, Ms Purdy’s case has been listed in the final historic slot for the last judgment to be given by the law lords before they are abolished today. Legal sources say this is a sign that Ms Purdy will be victorious.
In the autumn Britain’s most senior judges move across Parliament Square to become Supreme Court justices and the law lords, as part of the House of Lords, will be no more.
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“The law lords will want to reserve a case for their last that will have wide public interest — but also where they will have an impact,” one lawyer said. Ms Purdy said that, without a declaration from the DPP, she would have to end her life earlier than planned because she would not be able to rely on the help of her husband, the Cuban violinist Omar Puente.
Speaking from her home yesterday, Ms Purdy told The Times: “I have been so convinced all the way along that we were going to win,so it’s been a bit of a shock when we haven’t. But this time I can’t help feeling that we really will do it: the House of Lords are less constrained than the other courts, and the ruling is coming after the Times poll, which showed all the public who want what we want.”
In that poll, 74 per cent of respondents wanted doctors to be allowed to help terminally ill patients to end their lives. Helping anyone to commit suicide is at present punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
The former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, who recently tried unsuccessfully to amend the law, described the situation as a “legal no man’s land”. Ms Purdy, who had multiple sclerosis diagnosed in 1995 and is now in a wheelchair, said that the poll must “surely allay the fears of anyone who has doubts that we need to address this”.
Assisted suicide over the internet was one area that needed to be cleared up, she said. “Clearly it is not acceptable that people should encourage otherwise healthy individuals to take their lives over the net. The law does not make clear that assisted suicide in these cases is illegal and, if we win, the DPP would have the chance to say this. It’s a big opportunity.”
Despite any such declaration, she said, the law would still need to be examined by Parliament. She praised the media for bringing the issue to public attention. “Five years ago, I don’t believe a poll would have shown such support,” she said. “The media created this debate and raised awareness.”
Ms Purdy has said that she would like her husband to be able to help her to travel to a clinic in Switzerland, where she would be able to take her own life without fear of prosecution. More than 800 people have taken their lives with the help of the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Of those, 115 have come from Britain but no one has been prosecuted so far.
Lord Pannick, QC, told the law lords in June that the couple wanted to know what criteria the DPP took into account when deciding whether to bring charges under the Suicide Act. “While this will not provide a guarantee that the appellant’s husband will not be prosecuted, it will enable the appellant to make a better informed decision,” he said.
The High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled that it is for Parliament to change the law but that prosecution in cases such as Ms Purdy’s is unlikely. Ms Purdy says that she will take her case to the European Court of Human Rights if she fails today.
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