UK woman loses right-to-die battle

Diane Pretty is paralysed from the neck down

STRASBOURG, France -- A terminally ill British woman has lost her legal battle to allow her husband to assist her suicide.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Monday that Diane Pretty's husband, Brian, would not be protected from prosecution if he helped her commit suicide.

Suicide is legal in Britain, but helping someone else kill themselves is a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The Strasbourg judges said the fact that assisted suicide was a crime in England was not a breach of her human rights.

The European court ruling was her last hope of a legal seal of approval to what she sees as her right to die with dignity.

Pretty, a 43-year-old mother of two who is paralysed from the neck down, took her fight to the European court after losing her battle in the UK.

She has suffered from motor neurone disease since 1999 and is confined to a wheelchair.

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

She faces death soon from respiratory failure and pneumonia when her breathing muscles become affected by the disease.

After Monday's ruling, Brian Pretty said in a statement: "I don't want to say too much at the moment. I have got a lot of things on my mind.

"We'll speak more about what happened later at a news conference.

"We're still hoping to go ahead with her petition and I'll explain more details about that later."

Last October, the British High Court ruled that Brian Pretty could not be guaranteed immunity from prosecution. Britain's highest court of appeal, the House of Lords, upheld that ruling in November.

Diane Pretty's lawyers had argued that her rights under the European Convention of Human Rights had been violated by the British ruling by forcing her to undergo "degrading treatment or punishment."

They also complained that British authorities violated her right to life and right to self-determination by not allowing her to chose whether she wants to live or die.

British government lawyer Jonathan Crow has expressed sympathy for the "tragic circumstances" of the case but said the law was clear.

"A simple and clear-cut distinction has been drawn," he said.

"Domestic law simply does not allow one person to intervene deliberately to bring about another person's death."

Pretty said before her final appeal under domestic law last year: "I have fought this disease every step.

"If I am allowed to decide when and how I die, I will feel that I have wrested some autonomy back."

The Pretty case has fuelled a long-running debate in Britain over euthanasia, assisted suicide and people's right to choose when to die.