THE High Court lifted an order yesterday banning a man from taking his chronically ill wife to Switzerland for an assisted suicide.

In what is thought to be the first case of its kind, Mr Justice Hedley stopped short of sanctioning what has been called “suicide tourism” after a number of cases in which people travelled abroad to die.

Instead, he left the decision to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if any action should be taken against the husband.

The judge’s decision came in a test case brought by a local authority which learnt that the husband of a woman under its care was preparing to take her to a Zurich euthanasia clinic. Mr Justice Hedley ruled that the couple — believed to be middle-aged and from the North of England — should not be identified.

He said: “The court should not frustrate indirectly the rights of Mrs Z. The role of Mr Z is now a matter for the criminal justice agencies.”

Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said after the ruling: “This is a very important judgment, a watershed. It means that the Suicide Act is on its last legs.

“It raises all kinds of public policy issues. So do the authorities let this man go abroad and help his wife — in other words, are they a party to the offence? Or do they act now, to prevent an offence being committed?” Giving judgment after a day-long hearing, the judge said that Mrs Z suffered from an incurable degenerative illness that would ultimately affect all organs and lead to her death.

Her local authority had known for some time that she wished to commit suicide. “They have now learnt that Mr Z has made arrangements for her to go to Switzerland for an assisted suicide,” he said.

“In making these arrangements, Mr Z has arguably committed an offence under Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961.”

He said that Mrs Z’s legal capacity to make decisions had been investigated. “The evidence clearly establishes that she has legal capacity and that her decision is her own, freely arrived at with full knowledge of its consequences. The court is not entitled to test that decision against what the court thinks is right. The right and responsibility for such a decision belongs alone to Mrs Z.”

The judge, who was told that the local authority had informed the police of the plan, decided that it had fulfilled its legal obligations to Mrs Z. It had no wish to pursue its application for a civil court injunction, although it might have power to do so.

Mark Everall, QC, representing the local authority which provides care for the woman in her own home, told the judge that the husband had at first refused to help his wife, who is suffering from cerebellar ataxia, a progressive degenerative brain disease.

But as her condition, first diagnosed in 1997, worsened, he made inquiries about assisted suicides in Switzerland, where it is legal. The non-profit organisation Dignitas runs a clinic that has helped at least 22 British people to get round the ban on assisted suicide. In January last year it helped Reginald Crew, 74, who suffered from motor neurone disease, to commit suicide.

The case was investigated by the police but no file was sent to the CPS, so the service did not have to make a decision over whether to bring charges. Mr Everall told the court that to help a person to commit suicide in Britain is punishable by up to 14 years in jail, but police had not been clear on whether helping someone to travel to a country where it was legal constituted aiding a suicide.

“The husband has stated his view about it — that he will now comply with his wife’s wishes. The adult children of the family are again in a similar position — while clearly not wishing such a thing to happen, they support their mother in the decision she has taken.”

The judge said that the case raised issues “that ought to be the subject of proper public discussion”.

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