MS sufferer launches assisted suicide case

LONDON (Reuters) - A woman with multiple sclerosis is mounting a High Court challenge on Thursday to force the country's top prosecutor to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Debbie Purdy, 45, from Bradford, wants assurances that she does not have to worry about her husband if he helps her visit a euthanasia facility in Switzerland at some stage in the future.

The law states that assisting suicide is a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

But since 1992, almost 100 British citizens have ended their lives at the Dignitas facility in Switzerland -- where assisted suicide is legal -- without their relatives being prosecuted.

However, Purdy fears that her professional musician husband Omar will be treated more harshly because he is Cuban. She wants the Director of Public Prosecutions to clarify the law to set her fears at rest.

"I enjoy my life and the people around me, and I don't want to die until my condition becomes unbearable," she said in a statement. "If the law is not clarified, I may be forced to travel abroad alone before I am ready.

"I just want clarity so I know whether or not my husband Omar will be prosecuted or questioned by the police if I decide to travel abroad and he accompanies me."

Purdy's lawyer David Pannick told the court that the law required more information to be made public, the Press Association reported.

He argued the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Sir Ken Macdonald, had breached Purdy's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to publish a policy making clear the circumstances in which he would, or would not, allow a prosecution to proceed.