Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy on Thursday won a legal bid to force the British government to clarify the law on assisted suicide. Britain’s House of Lords, the highest court in the country, ruled the failure to make clear circumstances in which a person could be prosecuted for accompanying someone abroad to commit suicide infringed her human rights.

Purdy, 46, from Bradford, wanted to force the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to give assurances her husband would not be prosecuted if he helped her go to a euthanasia facility overseas. The law says assisting suicide carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Purdy’s lawyers argued the DPP should issue specific policy guidelines on suicide assistance prosecutions. The DPP will now have to provide that clarification, although the ruling does not change the law itself.