Woman set for suicide appeal bid !

Debbie Purdy talks to BBC Medical Correspondent, Fergus Walsh, about her last chance to try to clarify the law

A woman with multiple sclerosis is urging the House of Lords to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Debbie Purdy, from Bradford, plans to go abroad to end her life but fears her husband may be prosecuted if he helps.

The law states it is illegal to help anyone commit suicide, but no-one has been charged over helping someone go to Swiss clinic Dignitas to die.

The two-day hearing which starts on Tuesday represents the 45-year-old's last chance in the UK legal system.

She has already lost High and Appeal court cases and if she loses this challenge the only option open to her would be to go to the European Court of Human Rights.

Ms Purdy is one of 800 British people who have become members of Dignitas in case they should want to take their own life.

Later this week the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer will table an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill to lift the threat of prosecution facing those who help somebody kill themselves overseas.

Ms Purdy was diagnosed with primary progressive MS in 1995 and is now losing strength in her upper body. She has been in a wheelchair since 2001.

She has said that if she cannot be 100% certain that her husband, Omar Puente, would not face criminal charges she would have to go to Switzerland earlier than she wanted to.

Her legal team has asked for full details on how the Director of Public Prosecutions office makes its decision on when to prosecute.

But High Court judges ruled in October that it was impossible to offer case-by-case guidance - a stance supported by the appeal court in February.

Ms Purdy said: "It is incredible that the law is not clear and that is all I am asking for. I still don't know under what circumstances he would be prosecuted.

"Can he buy me a ticket to travel? Can he push my wheelchair?"'

Lord Falconer said it was probably a crime under the current law to assist somebody to go to a clinic abroad - but nobody was usually prosecuted.

He said: "Debbie is right to say that that is a very uncertain position. It means that people like Debbie won't be sure that her husband, if he accompanies her, won't be prosecuted after she has gone to the clinic.

"In some cases, people have to go without their partners because of that fear."

Lord Falconer said people should not have to rely on the discretion of a prosecutor.

He said: "The law should be set out in a statute and I think that law should say that, subject to very clear safeguards, you won't be prosecuted if you go with your loved one to a clinic abroad to help that loved on commit suicide."

It is not the first time the issue has been raised in the courts.

In 2001 Diane Pretty, who had motor neurone disease, failed to get immunity from prosecution for her husband if he helped her to die in the UK.

Several attempts to legalise suicide in Britain have also been rejected.

In England and Wales, aiding or abetting a suicide is a crime punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment.

It is expected to be several weeks before a ruling is made public.

BBC NEWS REPORT.