Come on Parliament - do your job!

The latest episode in the Debbie Purdy saga (see post of 31/10/08) just reinforces what a mess the whole business is. The DPP has sort of said that he will not prosecute where it would not be in the public interest to do so, and the Lord Chief Justice has now stated that even were the DPP to prosecute the courts had the power not to impose a penal sanction if they felt it was not justified. But that really doesn't answer the basic problem, which is that anyone who assists someone to take their own life is at the whim of others over whether or not they will find themselves in trouble with the law, and this can't be right. The Appeal Judges referred to the "dreadful predicament" and "impossible dilemma" in which Mrs Purdy and her husband find themselves, but made it clear (rightly in my view) that it is for Parliament to sort it out. Unfortunately it would seem that neither Gordon Brown as Prime Minister nor Jack Straw as Justice Secretary sees anything wrong with things as they are. There's none so blind...