Acts of love that risk a jail sentence

The law against assisted suicide is untested in Britain but an imminent ruling may change all that. By Jeremy Laurance

No relative or friend of the more than 100 UK citizens who has gone abroad to Dignitas clinics to die has been prosecuted. But the risk is always there. Under the present law, anyone who helps facilitate a suicide faces up to 14 years in jail. Mark and Julie James, Daniel's parents, will be watching carefully the outcome of a case, expected this week, which seeks to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Lord Justice Scott Baker and Mr Justice Aikens will rule in the case of Debbie Purdy, a 45-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis who wants to know if her husband, Omar Puente, a Cuban violinist, can help her travel to the clinic in Switzerland, if her illness becomes too much to bear, without fear of prosecution.

Ms Purdy was granted a judicial review by the High Court last June of what constitutes "assisted suicide" so she and her husband could make the necessary plans. If the authorities refuse to lift the threat of prosecution, she has warned she could be forced to make the journey to Dignitas before she is ready, while she can still accomplish it alone. The Crown Prosecution Service has argued that existing guidance is sufficient and each case must be considered on its merits.

Mark and Julie James, already struggling with the catastrophic loss of their son, must now wait to hear if they will be prosecuted for helping him to end his suffering. Their tragedy is accentuated by his extreme youth – he was 23 – and by the fact that his condition, although desperately serious, was not, apparently, terminal.

On both counts, opponents of assisted suicide will criticise their decision. He is the youngest British patient to end his life at Dignitas by two decades. Other victims of similar injuries have, with the right support, gone on to lead full lives, despite facing enormous barriers. Christopher Reeve, star of the Superman films, who was left paralysed and on a ventilator after a riding accident, was guaranteed recognition as a campaigner for spinal injury research by his fame but other lesser-known figures have also found satisfying roles.

It is a heart-rending case that raises difficult questions about whether patients in Daniel's position need treatment for depression, and for how long and aggressively treatment should be applied. Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for terminally ill, mentally competent adults to have the option of an assisted death, accepted Daniel's case fell outside its remit because his condition was not terminal. But Sarah Wotton, the chief executive, said it would allow people like Daniel to discuss their concerns and to obtain support rather than acting "behind closed doors".

Alice Jones, director of Fate at the End, a Scottish charity campaigning for assisted suicide, said it was "terribly sad" that Daniel and his parents had been forced to travel abroad. But she added: "Who is to say his life could be satisfying? It is up to the patient themselves. If they find life intolerable, they should be allowed to die at home with a prescription from their doctor."

But Michael Irwin, a GP and campaigner for assisted suicide, says he is "99.9 per cent certain" the James's will not face charges. He said: "I have taken three people to Switzerland to die and have been interviewed by the police three times and nothing has happened to me. And I am taking someone to die in December. If the police don't bother with me, who has has done this many times and is no relation of the people he helped die, they won't bother with relatives who don't plan on doing it again."