UK woman loses right-to-die case

LONDON, England -- A terminally-ill British woman has lost the final leg of her legal battle for the right to commit suicide with the help of her husband.

Diane Pretty, 42, who has suffered from motor neurone disease since 1999, had wanted her husband, Brian, to be immune from prosecution if he helped her commit suicide.

Pretty, was granted an urgent hearing at the House of Lords after the High Court ruled in October that a family member could not help a loved one die.

Her disease is now at an advanced stage, leaving the mother-of-two unable to speak and having to be fed through a tube. Her intellect and decision-making capacity are unimpaired.

In a setback for supporters of euthanasia, five Law Lords ruled on Thursday that the Human Rights Act had no effect on a refusal by the director of public prosecutions to guarantee Diane Pretty's husband, Brian, freedom from prosecution.

Assisted suicide, said Lord Bingham of Cornhill, was against the law and no-one had the power to suspend or abandon laws without parliamentary consent.

He said that no-one who had heard of Mrs Pretty's illness -- motor neurone disease -- and its consequences could be unmoved by the frightening ordeal facing her.

The question whether the terminally-ill should be free to seek help in taking their own lives was of great social, ethical and religious significance, he said.

But the purpose of the House of Lords appeal committee was not to weigh the differing views on the subject and give its own verdict but to apply the law of the land, he added.

Her lawyer, Philip Havers QC, told the court:"The final stages of the disease are distressing and undignified and she is profoundly frightened by the thought of the distressing and undignified death she will inevitably have to endure.

"She very strongly wishes to control how and when she dies.

"But for her disorder she would be able to do so by lawfully committing suicide. The terrible irony of the case is that the disorder which causes her so much suffering also prevents her from doing so."

Under English law, helping in a suicide is a crime punishable by up to 14 years in jail but taking one's own life ceased to be a crime in 1961.