LET ME DIE, BEGS WOMAN

A WOMAN paralysed from the neck down will today beg a court to let her die.

In a landmark case, the professional woman, in her forties, will plead with a judge from her hospital bed that she be released from her suffering.

Described by her lawyers as "very courageous", she is paralysed after a blood vessel burst in her neck last year. She will argue that her condition gives her no quality of life.

The case is unprecedented because the woman, who is in her right mind and of above-average intelligence, will be the first person in the UK to ask the court to have her ventilator switched off.

Unlike the right-to-die case of motor-neurone sufferer Diane Pretty, who requires active assistance to end her life, the woman in this case would die if her ventilator were simply switched off. Previous cases where the courts have been asked to switch off ventilators - such as that of Hillsborough victim Tony Bland - involved patients in permanent vegetative states who were incapable of deciding their fates for themselves. Legally, a ventilator counts as medical treatment which a patient who is mentally rational is entitled to refuse.

The three-day hearing will begin with the High Court convening around the hospital bed, where a ventilator has kept the woman alive for the last 11 months.

The woman, a former social care professional who is single with no children, cannot be identified. She is unable to move or breathe unaided and although her condition is stable, her chances of improvement are put at less than one per cent.

Her solicitor, Richard Stein of London firm Leigh, Day and Co, said: "She says this isn't life and she doesn't want to live like this. It's her choice.

She has a very clear view about the unbearable quality of life she faces as a result of her illness, and her wish to have treatment withdrawn."

The doctors treating her say their ethical training would not allow them to switch off the ventilator even if she wins. Should she do so, another doctor who runs an intensive treatment unit has offered to let her move there to end her life. The case is expected to set a new legal test of a person's competence to decide whether they wish to pursue hospital treatment.

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