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THE GUARDIAN |
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Win for woman in suicide bid
Terminally ill patient who wants her husband to help her die wins the first round of her high court battle
Vikram Dodd Saturday September 1, 2001
A terminally ill woman who faces death by choking and suffocation because of her condition yesterday won the first stage in the legal battle to allow her husband to help her commit suicide.
Diane Pretty, 42, has been left almost completely paralysed from the neck down by motor neurone disease.
Yesterday the high court granted a full judicial review of the refusal of the director of public prosecutions to guarantee that Mrs Pretty's husband would not be prosecuted if he helped her to end her suffering.
This is the first ever challenge to the complete ban on assisted suicide. The ruling brought condemnation from pro-life groups who fear the frail and vulnerable could die against their wishes if Mrs Pretty's case succeeds.
Mrs Pretty, from Luton, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which is untreatable, in 1999. She was in court in a wheelchair yesterday, with her husband of 25 years, Brian.
Mrs Pretty is fully mentally competent, the court heard, and uses the little power she has in her arm to communicate by using a machine on her wheelchair which prints out text messages.
Philip Havers QC, representing Mrs Pretty, said the DPP's decision breached her rights under the European convention on human rights as it would subject her to inhuman and degrading treatment.
He said that Mrs Pretty is too disabled to kill herself and the 1961 Suicide Act prevents anyone from helping her.
Mr Havers said: "The effect of the act is that she is treated less favourably than those who are not physically prevented from enforcing their [convention] rights because they can take their own lives without requiring the assistance of others to do so."
As Mrs Pretty's disease progresses, nerve cells in her brain and spinal cord will degenerate. The muscles in the diaphragm essential to breathing will become paralysed, leaving her to suffocate.
"The claimant is frightened and distressed at the prospect of the death she will suffer as a result of MND," Mr Havers said, adding that she "strongly wishes to maintain at least a vestigial control over her body and... be spared the misery and indignity that she will otherwise suffer."
Mr Havers argued that human rights legislation allowed Mrs Pretty's husband to help her as the European court had ruled that the right to life enshrined in the European convention on human rights did not require a state to prohibit suicide or passive euthanasia.
Mrs Pretty let out a cry as Mr Justice Silber granted permission for a full hearing. Mr Pretty mouthed "thank you". Outside court Mr Pretty said "Diane is very pleased with the outcome today. What she is fighting for is the right to choose when she wants to die."
Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, expressed his sympathy but said: "Establishing a 'right to die' would undermine the fundamental right to life, by creating categories of people whose lives are deemed not worth living."
The full hearing is not likely to take place before late September.
An ailment with no cure
• Up to 5,000 people in Britain may have motor neurone disease, a group of ailments affecting nerve cells along which the brain delivers messages to muscles
• It leads to weakness and wasting of muscles, usually first in the arms and legs but progressively other areas
• Intellect, touch, taste, smell and hearing are not usually affected. It usually occurs in people over 40
• There is no cure but a drug called riluzole can slow the advance of one form. Two in 10 people are alive five years after diagnosis and one in 10 survives more than 10 years |