MORE than 30 Britons have written statements confessing to helping friends or relatives to die at a Swiss euthanasia clinic as part of a test case to change the law.

Details of the admissions will be submitted to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) as part of a legal challenge by a woman suffering from a progressive form of multiple sclerosis.

She wants her husband to be allowed to accompany her to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich without the threat of prosecution and is seeking a statement from the DPP clarifying the law.

Debbie Purdy, 44, from Bradford, says that unless she gets a guarantee that her husband, Omar Puente, will not be prosecuted for helping her to travel to Switzerland to commit suicide, she will be forced to take her life sooner than she would like while she is still capable of travelling alone.

The Home Office has said helping someone to make arrangements to travel to Dignitas could constitute an offence under the 1961 Suicide Act, which states someone who aids the suicide of another will be liable to 14 years in jail. Decisions to prosecute in individual cases are at the discretion of the DPP.

Purdy, a former marketing officer, said: “I want absolute clarity that my husband will not be prosecuted. If the DPP does not give this assurance, then I will need to go to Dignitas a long time before I want to die. I want to wait until the last possible moment, when I can no longer bear being alive, but I cannot do that while there is a chance my husband will be prosecuted.”

Purdy, whose case is backed by Dignity in Dying, the campaign group, is asking the DPP to specify what would be considered to be aiding and abetting a suicide. It wants to know whether he could be prosecuted for booking her into the clinic, helping to push her wheelchair there or making her travel arrangements.

Her solicitor, Saimo Chahal, a partner in the law firm Bind-mans, said: “The objective is to persuade the DPP to issue a policy statement saying that those assisting their loved ones to travel to Zurich to have a medically assisted suicide will not be liable to prosecution under Section 2 (1) of the Suicide Act.

“A prosecution has never been brought against such a person despite some high-profile cases. People who do help their loved ones should not face the additional anxiety and distress that they may be prosecuted.”

Last year Stefan Sliwinski, 35, of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, was arrested after accompanying his mother Valere Sliwinski, 58, who had cancer and multiple sclerosis, to her assisted death in Zurich. He was never charged.

Michael Irwin, a retired GP from Cranleigh, Surrey, has escorted three people to Dignitas and has been interviewed by the police three times. He has provided a witness statement to be used in the Purdy case.

He said: “I support this attempt by Debbie Purdy to try to obtain a public statement from the DPP that those assisting with arrangements to visit Dignitas will not be prosecuted.”

Ashley Riley, head of campaigns at Dignity in Dying, said: “The very least Debbie deserves is to win this case.”

Over the past two weeks Chahal has gathered written statements from 36 Britons who have helped their friends or relatives to die at Dignitas. As more than 70 Britons have committed suicide at the Swiss clinic, further declarations are expected.

The DPP said that Purdy’s request would be considered when it was received.

Explore Health News

• Swine flu

Times Recommends

• Thalidomide is story of pain and neglect
• Mum’n’dad vote will decide the next election
• Socialite wife in a class of her own