Debbie Purdy shows why suicide law needs to be clearer

Nov 2 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

WHENEVER I read about someone seeking to end their life through assisted suicide, the same question runs through my mind . . . do they really have nothing left to live for?

I thought that about Daniel James, the paralysed 23-year-old former rugby player who was helped by his parents to commit suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland last month.

And I’m thinking it again about multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy, who plans to follow in Daniel’s footsteps.

But I always reach the same conclusion. While I might imagine that, in their shoes, I’d find some vestige of hope and live my life accordingly . . . I can never truly know what it is like to be in that dark place.

None of us can. And that’s why the subject is so divisive. It’s why quadriplegics were queuing up in the wake of Daniel’s death to declare that life is worth living, while many able-bodied people said they would have done the same.

Now Debbie Purdy, who is just 45, wants to choose the time and manner of her death. Yet, with the possibility of prosecution still hanging over Daniel’s parents, Debbie fears her husband Omar might also be hauled before the courts if he helps her.

Surely people in these heart-breaking situations have enough to worry about without trying to interpret the law.

As Debbie Purdy said this week: “The British law should be clear . . . you should know what actions put you on what side of the law.”

Isn’t it incredible that it takes a terminally ill woman with no legal training to point out the blindingly obvious?