BB FANS

'He wasn't prepared for a second-class life': why injured rugby star went to Switzerland to die




Police are investigating the assisted suicide of 23-year-old rugby player Daniel James. Photograph: PA
A 23-year-old who played rugby for England as a teenager has committed suicide in a Swiss euthanasia clinic after having become paralysed from the chest down in a training accident. Police are investigating.

Nuneaton rugby club hooker Daniel James felt his body had become a "prison" and lived in "fear and loathing" of his daily life, his parents said last night, having accompanied him to Switzerland from their home in Sinton Green, near Worcester. He had attempted to kill himself several times since March 2007 when a scrum had collapsed on him and dislocated his neck vertebrae, trapping his spinal cord and rendering him immediately tetraplegic.

West Mercia Police have begun an investigation into his assisted suicide, which took place on September 12. Details were made public yesterday when police published a statement relating to an inquest in progress. Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK, and family or friends who help face up to 14 years in jail. Officers have questioned a man and a women in the case and are preparing to submit a report to the Crown Prosecution Service.

James' parents, Mark and Julie, said last night that their son had been "an intelligent young man of sound mind" and "not prepared to live what he felt was a second-class existence".

He is one of the youngest Britons to have travelled abroad for assisted suicide. Earlier this month, Dignitas, the centre for assisted dying in Zurich, said that 100 Britons have travelled to Switzerland to make use of its more liberal laws. It is thought James attended a clinic in Berne.

James was a talented player who seemed destined for a professional career. He played for England at under-16 level and went on to play for Loughborough University, where he was an engineering undergraduate. The training accident happened four days after he helped England Students beat a France side in Oxford.

In a training session for forwards, he was practising a scrum when the pack came crashing down. Under their weight, he dislocated bones in his neck and trapped the spinal cord.

In the following weeks he had several operations and spent eight months in rehabilitation, including a stay at Stoke Mandeville hospital, before returning home; he only ever regained a small amount of use in his fingers. Early last month he travelled to Switzerland. His funeral took place in the UK on October 1.

"His death was an extremely sad loss for his family, friends and all those that cared for him, but no doubt a welcome relief from the prison he felt his body had become and the day to day fear and loathing of his living existence," the James family solicitors said last night. "This is the last way that the family wanted Dan's life to end, but he was, as those who know him are aware, an intelligent, strong-willed, and some say determined young man."

Yesterday the Spinal Injuries Association expressed shock. "When someone has an injury like this, you think its the end of the world as life is going to change for ever," said Daniel Burden, head of public affairs. "But our mantra is that life need not end if you are paralysed. We know of people with similar or worse injuries than Dan who have lived fulfilling lives."

The case comes as Debbie Purdy, 45, who has primary progressive multiple sclerosis, awaits a high court judgement seeking clarification of the legal status of family and friends who accompany people who commit assisted suicide.

Her action is being supported by Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a law change to allow terminally ill and mentally competent patients to choose assisted death in the UK. James, who was not terminally ill, would not have been eligible under any such alteration of the law.

Prior to his death, James's uncle, Mark Roebuck, who started The Dan James Trust which raised nearly £25,000 for spinal research, paid tribute to his nephew.

"On Monday March 12 2007 Dan was just like thousands of 23-year-olds, full of life, hope, excitement and dreams. Whatever he chose to do, he would have done it with the good humour and lovely nature that made him a lovable young man."

The message boards on Nuneaton rugby club's website carried tributes yesterday. "This is really sad and tragic news, and it makes all the silly arguments with the rugby and football club very trivial and unimportant," said Nutty Nun. "My thoughts, sympathy and prayers are with Dan's family. RIP Dan."

Forbidden by law

Although suicide is no longer a crime in England and Wales, it is still an offence under the Suicide Act 1961 to "aid, counsel or procure the suicide of another"; the penalty is up to 14 years' imprisonment, and there have been 12 prosecutions since 2005.

The only jurisdictions where assisted suicide is not illegal are Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the state of Oregon in the US.

Although Swiss law does not specifically permit assisted suicide or provide any details about how it can be done legally, it does not prohibit it either. Several clinics have been established, providing facilities for terminally ill people to commit suicide, including Dignitas in Berne, the only clinic which offers its services to people not living in Switzerland. Since it opened in 1998 it has helped 868 people to end their lives, 100 of them from the UK.

Dignitas's motto is "to live with dignity - to die with dignity". It offers a service to the terminally ill and their families including accommodation, access to doctors and a dose of a drug causing a deep coma and painless death. However, anyone who accompanies a relative to Dignitas risks prosecution on their return for assisting suicide contrary to English law.
Guardian

How terribly terribly sad.

I've a friend who became paralysed from the chest down after an accident in her mid forties. A short while after, another horror visited that small family - can't go into the details - and then the following year, my friend got breast cancer - but in her own words 'the cancer was a doddle in comparison to being paralysed'.

It'd be difficult to find a nicer, kinder, more generous person than this woman. So you'll have to excuse me - I won't be giving credence to the notion of 'karma'.

When you think about how little a person can do, without the use of their limbs, and with other problems, such as loss of bladder control...awful...

I take my hat off to anyone who can cope - and even triumph, in some ways - in a situation like that. Is it any wonder that some feel they can't face such a future? There is tremendous help, from amazing people in the 'caring professions'...but then, when an economic crisis occurs, it's not certain if there will be adequate funding to continue. Talk about injustice!

It is very sad and I think a young lad of 23 who wants to die rather then live maybe 40 years paralysed from the chest down must have been hearth breaking for him, his family and friends.
Able bodied people need to remember the people like Daniel who live at home or in hospital more I feel.

Suicide law campaigner backs Daniel James's family

MS sufferer fighting High Court battle over right to die defends parents who helped their son, paralysed playing rugby, to end his life in Switzerland

By Emily Dugan


A terminally ill woman fighting a High Court battle over the UK's controversial assisted suicide laws yesterday defended the parents of a paralysed 23-year-old who helped him end his life and said the case highlights the urgent need for clarification in the law.

Debbie Purdy, 45, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, is expecting a High Court decision this week as to whether her husband can legally accompany her to Switzerland if she chooses to die. Daniel James went with his parents, Mark and Julie, to the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic last month after he lost the use of his body from the chest down in a rugby accident. This weekend it emerged that the police are investigating his parents' involvement.

Ms Purdy said: "My heart breaks for the James family. It's an awful thing and it makes me surer than ever that we've got to get clarity on the law. It's bad enough that anybody would have to bury their child, but now they're trying to grieve for him and are instead being probed by the police. It's unbearable.

"The judiciary and politicians should hang their heads in shame that something like this happens because they choose not to discuss the issue. If we have discussions, we can find a law that is right for our society and prevent painful experiences like theirs."

Julie James said yesterday that her paralysed son had found life unbearable. She added that she would like to meet the "well-meaning" woman associated with social services who reported the family to the police while they were away in Switzerland.

"This person had never met Dan before or after his accident and obviously gave no consideration for our younger daughters who had seen their big brother suffer so much, and the day before had to say goodbye to him. I hope that one day I will get the chance to speak to this lady and ask if she had a son, daughter, father, mother, who could not walk, had no hand function, was incontinent and relied upon 24-hour care for every basic need, and they had asked her for support, what would she have done," Mrs James wrote in an email to The Daily Telegraph.

Assisting in suicide is currently an offence punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment, but the law remains unclear over what exact circumstances would cause someone to be charged.

Lord Joffe, whose Bill to allow terminally ill patients to be assisted in death was blocked by the House of Lords two years ago, said yesterday it would be inhumane to prosecute the James family. "If parents love their child who is suffering terribly and are asked to accompany them, I don't know how they could refuse," he said.

"Going with them to the place where they end their life is humane and consistent with care and love. The last thing any parent wishes is for their child to die, and it would be inhumane for the parents to be prosecuted."

The case has also prompted politicians to call for an urgent review of the law on assisted suicide. Lord Joffe hopes to make another attempt at putting the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill through the Lords next year. "The sooner the law is changed the more humane and in tune with public opinion it will be."

Lord Joffe called on the Attorney General to act quickly on Debbie Purdy's case so that families would know if they were breaking the law when they accompanied relations seeking suicide abroad. "There are a hundred people at least who've gone to Zurich for assisted suicide, and in almost every case they have been accompanied by family," he said. "It's important for the future that family and friends who wish to help end their loved ones suffering know whether or not they are committing an offence."

Margot MacDonald, a Member of Scottish Parliament who suffers from Parkinson's disease and wants the option of assisted suicide available, said the law needs to be clarified urgently. "Our lawmakers are falling down on the job. This has to be tidied up legally so it takes into account the wishes of the majority to be able to choose. The interface of private morality and policy making is a difficult place to be, but it mustn't be avoided," she said.
Independent

Specialist lawyers to decide if rugby player's parents should be charged with assisting suicide
By Rod Chaytor
A team of specialist lawyers is to decide whether the parents of paralysed rugby player Dan James will be charged with assisting his suicide.
The police file on Dan’s parents Mark and Julie has been passed to one of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Complex Casework Units.
A CPS spokesman said: “The case will be looked at by senior lawyers who will not rush into deciding whether to prosecute.
“These cases can be very complex. We cannot give a timescale when a decision is likely to be made.”


There are about 15 of the units nationwide, dealing with human trafficking, gang shootings, murder and assisted suicides.
Dan, 23, died in a Swiss suicide clinic last month after he was paralysed in a rugby training accident.
Mark and Julie, of Worcester, took the England U16 star to the clinic. They said: “He was not prepared to live a second-class existence.”
Mirror

On Daniel James: An act of love that every mother will understand

What does a mother do when the child she can remember singing to sleep, whose scraped knees she bandaged and who she loves more than life itself, begs: "Mum, help me to die?"

I don't believe there can be a greater love than that of Julie James, who brought her son Daniel into the world 23 years ago and last month helped him leave it.

For over a year she'd watched her tortured boy, paralysed in a rugby accident, try to kill himself three times and fail on each occasion because his broken body wouldn't let him finish the job.

There were no pills Julie could administer to lessen his pain, no plasters to make things better and no words of comfort to make his mental torment easier to bear.

Daniel couldn't walk, was incontinent, suffered uncontrollable spasms and needed 24-hour care.

Any mother who has nursed a loved one will understand Julie's utter helplessness.

When that invalid is a once exuberant young man who doesn't want pity but his old life back, it's hard to measure her despair.

Few people would condemn Julie for believing the very best she could do for Daniel was to meet his request to die and release him from a body that had become his prison.

"Our son," she says, "could not have been more loved, and had he felt he could live his life this way, he would have been loved just the same."

No one would have understood that more than Daniel, and for Julie and her husband Mark that rejection of unconditional love must be as hard to deal with as his loss. Yet, with great dignity they remain resolute that their decision was the right and compassionate one.

No one talks much about their grief, which can only have been made worse by the involvement of the police, who felt obliged to investigate Daniel's death after a "well-meaning" person brought the assisted suicide to their attention.

A report has since been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, where it's now being considered by their Complex Case Unit. Let's hope it stays there.



Who are we to judge Daniel's decision?

Life is so full of unexpected tragedies that we're constantly reminded we must live for today.

He felt all his todays were over when that scrum collapsed during a regular training session at Nuneaton RFC.

Rugby was his joy, his life and it was one he must have taken for granted till, in a split second, the fragility of it all became apparent and Daniel went from extrovert player destined for stardom to a tetraplegic.

Any dreams of becoming a professional player, like his dad, were shattered along with hopes he must have cherished of marrying and having a family.

There would be no more barroom banter, nights out with the lads, women, fast cars or the sheer physical thrill of being at the centre of his sport.

It's possible he might, given time, have enjoyed a different, rewarding life as Superman actor Christopher Reeve, paralysed after a riding accident, did.

Certainly tetraplegic Matt Hampson, also injured playing rugby, has rehabilitated himself to the extent that suicide has never crossed his mind.

Although he needs a ventilator to breathe Matt finds enjoyment in the simplest things like "the sun kissing my face on a warm summer's day and the laughter of friends drinking beer in the garden".

He believes that the only two ways to deal with the cruel hand life dealt him and Daniel is to "either get busy living or get busy dying".

Matt chose to live. Daniel chose to die. And for Julie James there was no choice at all.

She did only what she could for the son she loved. She let him go. And for that she deserves compassion, not the strong arm of the law.
Mirror