Debbie Purdy

{{Short description|British music journalist and political activist}}

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| occupation = Musical journalist

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Debbie Purdy (4 May 1963 – 23 December 2014){{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/debbie-purdy-campaigner-who-fought-tirelessly-for-clarification-of-assisted-suicide-laws-9950559.html |title= Debbie Purdy: Campaigner who fought tirelessly for clarification of assisted suicide laws |date= 30 December 2014 |accessdate= 30 December 2014 |first= Marcus |last= Williamson |work= The Independent}} was a British music journalist{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/aug/02/debbie-purdy-assisted-suicide-omari-puente|title = Interview: Debbie Purdy's husband, Cuban musician Omar Puente| website=The Guardian |date = August 2009}} and political activist from Bradford, West Yorkshire. After being diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, she challenged the law in England and Wales regarding assisted suicide.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/lawreports/joshuarozenberg/3098209/Popular-QC-appointed-to-House-of-Lords.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130505151215/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/lawreports/joshuarozenberg/3098209/Popular-QC-appointed-to-House-of-Lords.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-05-05|title=Popular QC appointed to House of Lords|work=The Telegraph | accessdate=2008-09-29 | location=London | first=Joshua | last=Rozenberg | date=2008-09-29}} In 2009, revised guidelines on assisted suicide law were published by the UK Government following Purdy's campaign.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8265304.stm|title= New guidance on assisted suicide|publisher=BBC News | accessdate=2009-09-20 | date=2009-09-20}}

Purdy's case

Debbie Purdy and her counsel David Pannick QC argued that the Director of Public Prosecutions (Ken Macdonald QC) was infringing on her human rights by failing to clarify how the Suicide Act 1961 is enforced. The DPP counsel took the position that the law does not require the DPP to make any further clarification of the Act: they argued that the Act and further information contained in the Code for Crown Prosecutors provided sufficient information.

Purdy's particular concern was to know whether any actions her husband, Omar Puente, took in assisting her suicide would lead to his prosecution. The penalty for those who "aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another" is up to 14 years in prison.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dont-jail-my-husband-if-he-helps-me-to-die-pleads-ms-sufferer-927090.html|title= Don't jail my husband if he helps me to die, pleads MS sufferer|work=The Independent | accessdate=2008-09-12 | location=London | date=2008-09-12}} No family member of the 92 Britons who have gone abroad for an assisted suicide had been prosecuted at that time, but some had been charged and later had the charges dropped.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/13/death-assistedsuicide|title= Dying for guidance|work=The Guardian | accessdate=2008-10-13 | location=London | first=Yvonne | last=Roberts | date=2008-10-13}} Purdy said that if her husband would be exposed to prosecution for helping her travel to Switzerland to a Dignitas clinic to die, she would make the journey sooner whilst she was able to travel unassisted.{{cite news|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2008/10/02/ms-sufferer-launches-assisted-suicide-case-115875-20766954/|title= MS sufferer launches assisted suicide case|work=Mirror| accessdate=2008-10-02}} This would save her husband from exposure to the law but would have forced Purdy to make her decision on dying before she felt it was absolutely necessary.

The hearing began on 2 October 2008 at the High Court of Justice. In court the DPP said that Purdy could not be given any reassurance that her husband would not be prosecuted as the law was clear that assisting suicide is an offence.

On 10 December 2008 Sky TV broadcast a programme on which a man with motor neurone disease was shown committing suicide with assistance.BBC Newsnight: TX 10 December 2008 There had also been the case of 23-year-old Daniel James, who went to Switzerland with the aid of his parents after being paralysed whilst playing rugby, in which the Department of Public Prosecutions determined that to prosecute the parents would be against the public interest. These two events led to the issue of assisted suicide making the first story on the BBC's Newsnight. Purdy appeared on the programme to debate the issue. She denied that it is society that makes disabled people wish to kill themselves and reasserted her belief that it is right to be able to seek assistance when one is physically incapable of committing suicide oneself.

Personal life

Purdy met her husband Omar Puente in Singapore when he was playing with a band, and they married in 1998. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after she found her feet felt heavy when out dancing. She later used a wheelchair for mobility and both her sight and hearing began to deteriorate.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3089249/Right-to-die-campaigner-Debbie-Purdy-vows-to-take-fight-to-House-of-Lords.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627131614/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3089249/Right-to-die-campaigner-Debbie-Purdy-vows-to-take-fight-to-House-of-Lords.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2009-06-27|title=Right-to-die campaigner Debbie Purdy vows to take fight to House of Lords MS sufferer launches assisted suicide case|work=The Telegraph| accessdate=2008-10-02 | location=London | first1=David | last1=Barrett | date=2008-09-27}}{{cite news|url=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4836537.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615181913/http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4836537.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 June 2011|title=The way we live|work=The Times| accessdate=2008-10-02 | location=London | first=Margarette | last=Driscoll | date=2008-09-28}} Purdy entered the Marie Curie Hospice in Bradford in June 2013 and in December 2013 she began to intermittently refuse food. She described the length of time it was taking to die as "agonising".{{cite news |title=Debbie Purdy: Right-to-die campaigner dies |publisher=BBC News |date=29 December 2014 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-25741005 |accessdate=21 September 2018}} Purdy died on 23 December 2014, aged 51.{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-30626698 |title= Debbie Purdy: Right-to-die campaigner's battle |date= 29 December 2014 |accessdate= 29 December 2014 |publisher= BBC News}}

Book and radio play

Purdy wrote a memoir entitled It's Not Because I Want to Die (2010, HarperTrue: {{isbn|978-0007357987}}). On 26 February 2019 BBC Radio 4 broadcast Joy Wilkinson's dramatisation of Purdy's book, as Test case: Debbie Purdy.{{cite web |title=Test Case: Debby Purdy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002r4f |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |accessdate=27 February 2019}} It was followed by a discussion, Test Case: The Legacy of Debbie Purdy, between professor Deborah Bowman, Purdy's husband Omar Puente, her lawyer Saimo Chahal QC, and barrister and peer Charlie Falconer.{{cite web |title=Test Case: The Legacy of Debbie Purdy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002r4h |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |accessdate=27 February 2019}}