Brown Challenged on Suicide Laws

UKPA

April 14, 2010

United Kingdom

Gordon Brown was challenged by right-to-die campaigner Debbie Purdy over his opposition to legalising assisted suicide in the UK.

The exchange came at a pre-General Election question and answer session in Leeds, organised by the Yorkshire Post newspaper.

Ms Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, won a landmark legal victory last year that forced the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to spell out the circumstances in which relatives would be charged for helping someone to die.

She welcomed the guidance for giving her clarity that husband Omar Puente would face prosecution for being present at her death.

But today she urged the Prime Minister to go further and actually change the law. "Can we, the electorate, trust politicians that we elect to seriously consider the experience of jurisdictions where assisted dying is legal - to consider how to implement that in this country?" she said.

"And is one of the reasons that politicians have avoided this issue, do you actually trust us to use legislation responsibly like they do in Oregon, Washington, Holland, Switzerland?"

Mr Brown praised Ms Purdy as a "very brave person and a very brave campaigner", and said he understood "the difficulties of families that are placed in this most impossible of positions when people are suffering and they want to do something".

But he insisted that his personal experience with family members had convinced him that the law must stand.

"I have written about this and I have thought about it deeply, and I know that you will probably disagree with me, but I personally think that our duty is to alleviate pain and suffering as much as possible," Mr Brown said.

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