Paralysed woman given right to die

Published on Friday 22 March 2002 00:00

A WOMAN paralysed from the neck down for more than a year today won her High Court battle for the right to die.

The woman, who was granted anonymity and referred to in court as Miss B, learned she had won her case via a video link to her hospital bed.

The landmark ruling by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, President of the High Court family division, will permit the woman to end her life peacefully and with dignity, the judge said.

Video screens at the High Court in London showed the court itself, the High Court in Birmingham where Dame Elizabeth gave her judgment and Miss B in her hospital bed.

The 43-year-old former social care professional could be seen chatting with her carers minutes before the judge granted her wish.

At 10am, the video switched to a full screen of Dame Elizabeth, who announced that the woman had had the necessary mental capacity since last August to give or refuse consent to life sustaining medical treatment.

In her judgment, Dame Elizabeth said: “One must allow for those as severely disabled as Ms B, for some of whom life in that condition may be worse than death.”

Dame Elizabeth, who had met Miss B at her hospital bedside, said of the patient: “I would like to add how impressed I am with her as a person, with the great courage, strength of will and determination she has shown in the last year.”

Miss B, in a statement given through her solicitors after the ruling, said: “This is a balanced and well thought out judgment and I am very pleased with the outcome of this case.”

Doctors at the hospital said it would be against their ethics to switch off the machine needed to keep the patient alive since a ruptured blood vessel in her neck a year ago left her paralysed and unable to breathe unaided. However, a lawyer for the hospital trust said there was intention to appeal.