Right to die battle taken to the supreme court

Jane Nicklinson and Paul Lamb have gone to the supreme court seeking a ruling that disabled people should have the right to be helped to die with dignity.

Nine justices are analysing the issue at a hearing in London expected to last four days and are due to announce a ruling next year.

A spokesman for the court said justices were being asked to decide if a prohibition on assisted suicide as outlined in the 1961 Suicide Act was compatible with the right to respect for private and family life enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The pair have argued that the law should include a “defence of necessity” and that doctors should be allowed to assist suicide when people have a “voluntary, clear, settled and informed” wish to end their life but are unable do so without medical assistance.

Paul Bowen QC, for Mrs Nicklinson and Mr Lamb, told the court that under the current situation there are “extraordinary and cruel consequences” for some disabled people.

‘Unbearable suffering’

Mr Bowen said it meant they were unable to end their “unbearable suffering” with dignity, leaving them with the option of a “less dignified” death which might put others at risk of prosecution.

Mrs Nicklinson, 58, of Melksham, Wiltshire, said she is “hopeful” of success and said she and fellow campaigners had done all they could. Her husband Tony started the legal fight before he died aged 58 in August 2012.

Mr Lamb was left paralysed after a 1990 road accident.

Justices are also analysing guidance given by Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions. That issue has been raised by a 49-year-old disabled man who has been identified only as “Martin”.

He argues that a “policy statement” in which the DPP sets out “public interest factors to be considered in the exercise of discretion to prosecute” is an unlawful interference with the right to respect for private and family life.