Right-to-die case prompts debate

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/8177597.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The papers are full of questions after multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy won a landmark case to have the law on assisted suicide clarified.

The Times <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6733923.ece">wonders how ministers will now cope with attacks</a> from "moral absolutists, religious dogmatists, humanists and myriad interest groups".

The Independent queries whether <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-assisted-suicide-calls-for-the-wise-exercise-of-discretion-1765230.html">"exactitude can be more of a hindrance than a help"</a> when it comes to complex moral issues.

And the Daily Mail asks: <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1203349/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-Debbie-Purdys-landmark-victory-affects-all.html">"What if the right to die becomes a duty to die?"</a>

Last Post

All of the newspapers pay tribute to veteran Henry Allingham who was buried with military honours on Thursday.

"He was <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2563502/Henry-Allinghams-death-is-end-of-an-era.html">one of the very last living links</a> to the carnage of the First World War," the Sun's Alex West writes.

"It took <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203173/Fly-past-honour-Britains-Great-War-survivor-Henry-Allingham.html">two world wars and well over a century,</a> but they were finally forced to sound the Last Post for Henry Allingham," says the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mirror's headline is simple: <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2009/07/30/moving-funeral-of-great-war-veteran-115875-21559559/">"An ordinary man, but an extraordinary human being". </a>

'National catharsis'

As the Iraq war inquiry gets under way, the papers have differing expectations of what it can achieve.

With its wide remit, the Financial Times thinks it could be as <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d7d274b4-7d38-11de-b8ee-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fd7d274b4-7d38-11de-b8ee-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fhome%2Fuk">politically dangerous for Gordon Brown's government</a> as the war itself was for Tony Blair's.

<a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/30/editorial-iraq-chilcot-abduction">"The truth needs to come out,"</a> says the Guardian. Iraq today "is very far from the country described on the prospectus handed out" before the 2003 invasion, it adds.

The Times feels the inquiry "provides <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/peter_riddell/article6733998.ece">an opportunity for national catharsis".</a>

'Harbinger of hope'

The Daily Express has good news for homeowners - "Britain could be on <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/117399/House-prices-up-for-third-month/">the brink of another house price boom".</a>

Any kind of optimism in the market will encourage much-needed consumer confidence, it writes. "It is a virtuous circle, a harbinger of hope."

But elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph brings <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/5942306/Motorists-to-pay-250-tax-for-parking-at-work.html">bad tidings for motorists</a> - government plans to tax anyone who drives to work.

The paper claims, that from 2012, local authorities will be able to charge employers £250 per parking space.