BBC: Woman loses assisted suicide case

Posted by Kendall Harmon

A woman with multiple sclerosis has lost her High Court case to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Debbie Purdy, 45, from Bradford, is considering going to a Swiss clinic to end her life, but fears her husband may be charged on his return to the UK.

She had wanted a guarantee that her husband, Omar Puente, would not be prosecuted.

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2 Comments
Posted October 30, 2008 at 3:37 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Paula Loughlin wrote:

I have progressive MS and I live with moderate to severe to excruciating pain every day.  I know that I will probably be wheelchair bound at some point.  The best treatment available for this type of MS is so not in my budget.  On top of the physical problems I as do many MS patients suffer at times from depression so deep I ask my husband to hide some of my medication.  Cause I truly do not trust myself not to do something which be against the laws of God.

That something is suicide.  No matter how they sugar coat it, no matter the fancy term for it.  The fact is that it is an act (when in the right state of mind) is a sin against God and an outrage to our dignity as human beings. 

I am not unsympathetic but nor am I naive.  Can anyone not draw a line from voluntary Euthanasia to forced
Euthanasia?  Can anyone doubt a right to die would not become a duty to die?

I feel for this woman, I truly do but am alarmed by how easy so many want death to appear.  It is not. Even the gentlest of deaths has a degree of violence to it.  And when that death is at the hands of another it is murder.  Maybe we should start referring to assisted suicide as assisted self murder so we can stop the moral confusion about it.

October 30, 9:12 pm | [comment link]
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