Brown on spot over assisted suicide challenge

The Bradford campaigner attended the Yorkshire Post question and answer session with Gordon Brown in Leeds and demanded to know why the Prime Minister had so far refused to introduce a new law legalising assisted suicide.

Ms Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair-bound, has been campaigning for a change in the law for the past two years, and following a High Court battle recently forced the Director of Public Prosecutions to clarify the circumstances in which a person can be prosecuted for helping a loved one to die.

But she is still battling for a formal change in the law, and has previously criticised Mr Brown for showing "a lack of respect" for the British people in refusing to give them the right to die.

At yesterday's event she returned to this theme, asking Mr Brown: "Is one of the reasons politicians have avoided this issue that you don't trust us to use legislation responsibly?"

The Prime Minister, however, insisted the issue was something he had considered "deeply", and added: "I do understand the strength of feeling that you believe on this, and I do understand the difficulties of families that are put in this most impossible of positions when people are suffering and they want to do something."

Mr Brown went on to make reference to Cicely Saunders, the founder of the hospice movement, stating that she had not supported a law on assisted dying.

The Prime Minister told the audience: "She said, No, the health service and the services we have got should be able to give people the palliative care and relieve that suffering, and we should not force relatives into a position where the person who is sick and in pain feels they have some obligation to apply for assisted suicide themselves, even though they don't want that to happen."

He told Ms Purdy she was a "brave campaigner", but added: "I hope you'll understand these are very strongly held arguments on all sides, and I want to support the interpretation of the Director of Public Prosecutions – but I would not support a change in the law at the moment."

After the event, Ms Purdy said she found Mr Brown "a lot more impressive than I expected him to be", but described his stance as "disappointing".

She said: "He is opposed because he's worried. He's a Presbyterian – of course he has some religious worries.

"But as a Prime Minister, that shouldn't be relevant. We are a nation of Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs and Jews and Christians and non-believers, and while he's got every right to a personal opinion he must consider other points of view."

Ms Purdy has already challenged Tory leader David Cameron over his opposition to assisted suicide, at a similar Yorkshire Post session last month and was met with a similar response.

She said: "It's disappointing, but it's expected. I think this issue is not so much seen as a vote winner but a vote loser.

"Eighty per cent of the population think there should be a change in the law, but at the end of the day if the British National Party said they were in favour, that would still not convince me to vote BNP.

"I think people who want a change in the law are concerned about other issues too. I would not only vote for a party on assisted dying, and I think most people in favour of this would say the same.

"But there are Christians who would simply not vote for a party which said it would change the law on assisted dying.

"So I think the politicians see it as something which would lose the vote of the religious right, but it wouldn't gain the votes of people who support it. But I will carry on fighting."

Long Battle for clarity on the law

n September 2008: Prosecutors announce the parents of paralysed rugby player Dan James may face charges after helping him commit suicide in Switzerland.

n October 2008: Multiple Sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy launches a High Court action demanding to know whether her own husband could face prosecution if he helped her die. She appeals after the court rules against her.

n December 2008: Prosecutors say the James family will not face charges.

n February 2009: Appeal court judges also rule against Ms Purdy, and she appeals to the House of Lords.

n July 2009: Law Lords rule "entirely" in her favour, saying

prosecutors must clarify when people would be charged.

n March 2010: The Director of Public Prosecutions publishes guidelines on assisted suicide.