Published 5 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2298
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2298

News

Debbie Purdy lodges appeal with House of Lords to prevent husband’s prosecution in assisted suicide case

Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Debbie Purdy, who wants her husband to accompany her to Switzerland for an assisted suicide without fear of prosecution, took her case to the United Kingdom’s highest court, the House of Lords, for a final appeal this week.

Ms Purdy, who has progressive multiple sclerosis, scored an important victory on the first day of the two day hearing, when the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, conceded that article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to respect for private life, applies to cases like hers.

Up to that point the Director of Public Prosecutions had argued, following the House of Lords judgment in the similar case of Diane Pretty eight years ago, that article 8 applies to the way people lead their life but not to the way they depart from it. This ruling was also followed by the High Court and the court of appeal . . . [Full text of this article]


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