Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2010

Suicide mother walks free

Published on 26 January 2010
Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2010

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British law surrounding the prosecution of relatives who help loved ones to die has been thrown into disarray after the acquittal of a woman accused of trying to kill her daughter, leads the Daily Telegraph. In a trial which reignites the long-running debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide, Kay Gilderdale was cleared of the attempted murder of her daughter Lynn, who had decided “she wanted to end her life after her body had been left “broken” by 17 years of the chronic fatigue illness ME.” Kay Gilderdale assisted “her suicide by giving her sleeping pills, antidepressants and injecting air into her veins in December 2008 after her daughter had injected herself with morphine”. Campaigners last night declared the case showed that law on the issue remained “a mess” and needed reviewing, citing the case of Frances Inglis, 57, who was jailed for nine years last week after giving her 22-year-old son Thomas, who suffered from severe brain damage, a fatal heroin overdose.

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