Huddersfield woman's battle for right to die reaches House of Lords

Jun 1 2009 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

CAMPAIGNER Lisa Cook is hoping for a breakthrough tomorrow in the fight for her right to decide when she ends her life.

Mrs Cook, 41, has a gene which means she will develop terminal illness Huntington’s disease at some point within the next 10 years.

The mother-of-one, of Woodhouse Hill, Fartown, is battling for the right of terminally ill people to end their own lives.

Her friend and fellow campaigner Debbie Purdy, of Bradford, will go to the House of Lords tomorrow to ask for the law on assisted suicide to be clarified.

The 47-year-old, who has multiple sclerosis, wants clarification on whether her husband, Omar Puente, could be prosecuted after her death if he accompanied her to a Swiss clinic to end her life.

It comes after the High Court and Court of Appeal rejected similar bids.

The Lords is the last avenue of appeal in the British legal system.

Mrs Cook said: “At the moment it is unclear what constitutes assisting someone to die.

“Is it buying them a plane ticket to Switzerland where they can do it legally? Is it pushing them onto the plane? Is it being with them in the room with them when they do it?

“At the moment people are gambling with their freedom because they could face 14 years in prison for helping someone to die.”

The current law on suicide has been in place since the 1960s.