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agate
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Joined: 17 May 2006
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 Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:57 pm Post subject: Irish woman w/MS loses appeal for assisted death |
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This is grim. (Since when does MS have "final stages"?)
From the New York Times, April 29, 2013:
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Irish Woman Loses Appeal for Assisted Death
By DOUGLAS DALBY
DUBLIN — A terminally ill woman in the final stages of multiple sclerosis does not have the right to an assisted death, the Irish Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The woman, Marie Fleming, a 59-year-old former university lecturer, said that she wanted to die peacefully at home at a time of her own choosing, but that her condition had deteriorated to the extent that she would need help to do it. Her partner, Tom Curran, 65, has said he will assist her. Under Irish law, that would be illegal, and he would face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.
Ms. Fleming was contesting the absolute ban on assisted suicide on the basis that the law discriminates against severely disabled people. Suicide was decriminalized in Ireland in 1993, and Ms. Fleming argued that she should have the same right as any able-bodied citizen to take her own life.
The court acknowledged the “tragic circumstances” in the case, but it rejected the argument that the decriminalization of suicide necessarily conferred a right to die.
In delivering the judgment, Chief Justice Susan Denham said the Irish Constitution did not contain any “explicit right to commit suicide, or to determine the time of one’s own death.”
Ms. Fleming appealed to the Supreme Court after losing her case at the High Court in Dublin in January. The High Court said that the public interest would be best served by protecting the vulnerable and that any relaxation of the law risked opening the door to euthanasia.
At a hearing in February, Ms. Fleming, who uses a wheelchair, told the seven members of the Supreme Court that she was in constant pain. She said her inability to swallow would probably cause her to choke to death. Ms. Fleming is paralyzed from the neck down.
During the High Court case, Ms. Fleming’s legal team said she could self-administer gas or a lethal injection, but that she would need help. After the ruling, Mr. Curran seemed to suggest that he was still prepared to assist his partner in dying. He said that having exhausted all legal avenues in Ireland, he would return to the home he shared with Ms. Fleming in Arklow, about 40 miles south of Dublin, and abide by her decision.
“The court has ruled on Marie’s future, as far as they’re concerned,” he said. Now, he said, the two would “live our lives until such a time when Marie makes up her mind that she has had enough.”
“And in that case,” he added, “the court will have the opportunity to decide on my future.”
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The article can be seen here. |
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