The mother of a paralysed rugby player who travelled to Switzerland to commit suicide - as exclusively reported in your Worcester News - wrote about his ordeal on a newspaper website, it emerged today.

Julie James' 23-year-old son Daniel died at a Swiss clinic on September 12, following a rugby accident which left him paralysed from the chest down in March last year.

Mrs James wrote about his death in a discussion about euthanasia on the Daily Telegraph website in which she criticised the "well meaning person" who reported the family to the police.

The email, published again on today's Daily Telegraph website, said Mr James had found life "unbearable" and revealed he had tried to commit suicide three times.

Travelling to Switzerland was his only option, she wrote.

The email continued: "Whilst we were away some 'well meaning' person involved with social services took it upon herself to call the police.

"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 went on to write "nobody but nobody should judge him".

Please give us your thoughts about 'assisted suicide' in our forums here.

'YOUNGEST PERSON' TO COMMIT ASSISTED SUICIDE ABROAD

Paralysed rugby player Daniel James is believed to be the youngest person from Britain to have gone to Switzerland to take his own life.
Dignity in Dying, an assisted suicide campaign group, said the 23-year-old, who died last month was the youngest person they were aware of to have committed assisted suicide abroad.
Chief executive Sarah Wootton said the case demonstrates the failures of the law on assisted suicide in the UK.
"Dignity in Dying campaigns for terminally ill, mentally competent adults to have the option of an assisted death, subject to legal safeguards."
"Dan James would not have been eligible for an assisted death under this sort of legislation, but - if it were in place - requests for help to die could be expressed openly to doctors rather than made to relatives behind closed doors.
"It is vital that we face up to these issues and debate them as a society," she added.
Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said: "I'm very sorry for what the young man went through but that is Swiss law and I hope it doesn't become law here."
"I have spoken at length about this. I would be opposed to it because I believe it would be open to vast abuse and we wouldn't be able to control it."
Debbie Purdy, a multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer who intends - if life becomes unbearable because of her illness - to travel abroad to a clinic in Switzerland or Belgium where people can end their lives by lethal injection, has recently called for clarification on the legal repercussions for her husband, Omar Puente, if he helps her journey abroad to die.
Commenting on the death of Mr James, Ms Purdy, 45, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said: "My heart bleeds for the family. I think it's really horrendous and I think they need as much support as he did when he was alive.
"No parents want to bury their children and while they're grieving for thier son they are being questioned by police. It's outrageous.
"I've heard lots of criticism saying he wasn't terminally ill but how can we criticise the Swiss law when we don't have the law in this country?
"We're too cowardly to discuss the question of the law here so people use the Swiss law because they're the only people who allow us to use it and then we criticise them.
"If we had the legal system when people could talk to the legal and medical profession where we can have an open debate about this, at least people would have the choice."

Please give us your thoughts about 'assisted suicide' in our forums here.