Earlier this week, right-to-die campaigners lost their battle in the Court of Appeal to be allowed to ask a doctor to end a person’s suffering, but they are determined to carry on the fight, having been granted leave to take their case to the Supreme Court.
The judges said that the law on assisted suicide could not be changed by the courts and quashed the appeal by paralysed man Paul Lamb and the family of Tony Nicklinson, who suffered locked-in syndrome, where someone is aware and awake but cannot move or communicate.
Mr Nicklinson had refused food and medication after he lost his bid to end his life with a doctor’s help last August, and died a week later. Speaking outside the court, his widow, Jane, said that she had seen the way her husband suffered and would hate to think of anyone else suffering as he did.
Mr Lamb, who has been paralysed since a car accident almost 25 years ago, said he was “gutted” by the ruling. He is immobile except for limited movement in his right hand, requires 24-hour care and is constantly on morphine to relieve pain. In a statement read outside the court, he said that he had been hoping for a humane and dignified end. “This judgment does not give me that,” he said.
The law in the UK says that anyone who helps another person to kill themselves commits the offence of assisted suicide, while a person who carries out euthanasia commits the offence of murder.
Meanwhile, a third man, who can only be identified as ‘Martin’, welcomed a separate ruling on the position of carers or health professionals who assist those wishing to end their own lives.
In his case, the Appeal Court ruled that the Director of Public Prosecutions needs to clarify the law so that those who travel with Martin will know whether or not they would be prosecuted.