Margaret Blackburn had stomach cancer

Some say the "desperately sad case" highlights the need for a change in the law - but anti-euthanasia campaigners say it sends out an alarming message.

Mrs Blackburn's sons from a previous marriage said the two were like soulmates and Judge Richard Hawkins said he accepted Blackburn had acted as a loving husband.

The judge added that while taking someone's life was a serious matter, the case's "exceptional circumstances" allowed him to suspend the sentence.

Blackburn, 62, has spent three months in prison since he cut his wife's wrists in October, then tried to kill himself. She had stomach cancer and was in great pain, the court heard.

He told police: "I did what she asked me to do. I failed myself. Now I have to pay the price."

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society says he should never have been put in that position and that the current law forces people to take matters into their own hands.

The judge took into account many factors in this case and I think a right and proper decision has been taken Detective Inspector Kevin McKentee

It called for Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which would allow doctors to help patients end their lives, to become law.

"Mr Blackburn would not have had to end her life, then face a lengthy and traumatic police investigation and trial," said its chief executive officer Deborah Annetts.

After the sentencing Blackburn's solicitor said her client was very relieved and Mrs Blackburn's sons, Colin and Martin Lawrence, have said they will stick by him "110%".

And outside court, Detective Inspector Kevin McKentee said he was pleased Blackburn had been spared jail.

"[The judge] took into account many factors in this case and I think a right and proper decision has been taken," he said.

'Alarming message'

But others warned against being distracted by "the emotional nature" of such cases.

ProLife Alliance director Julia Millington said the law was clear and should not be "applied selectively in response to individual cases".

"His sentence [Blackburn's] in no way reflects the gravity of the crime that he has committed," she said.

"Instead it sends out a very clear and, indeed, very alarming message that will in no way deter other people from imitating him."

The fact Blackburn was a retired policeman made the case worse, because he had been trained in upholding the law, she added.