26/02/2013

Right-To-Die Campaigner Takes Challenge To Supreme Court

A severely disabled woman in the final stages of multiple sclerosis, who lost her landmark High Court challenge to the absolute ban on assisted suicide last month, will take her challenge to the Supreme Court today

The three-judge High Court ruled in early January that the absolute ban is justified to protect vulnerable others from involuntary death and does not breach Marie Fleming's personal autonomy and equality rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights.

Ms Fleming, a 59-year-old former lecturer living in Co Wicklow, had asked the court for orders allowing her be lawfully helped take her own life at a time of her choosing so as to avoid what she fears will be a distressing and undignified death.

She argued, in her very particular circumstances, the blanket ban on assisted suicide in Section 2.2 of the Criminal Law Suicide Act 1993 breached her personal rights under the Constitution and ECHR.


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