Assisted suicide campaigners await supreme court verdict on right to die

Court will decide on two legal challenges, but one former lord chief justice believes this issue should be decided by parliament 

theguardian.com, Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent, Wednesday 25 June 2014

Paul Lamb, a right-to-die campaigner awaiting a verdict from the supreme court
on his challenge to the law. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Campaigners for the right to assisted suicide will learn on Wednesday whether the ban on doctors helping to end the lives of their patients can be lifted. The supreme court will deliver its verdict this morning on two related cases brought by men who are severely ill but require medical assistance in order to die.

The legal challenges have been brought by Paul Lamb, who suffered catastrophic injuries after a car accident, Jane Nicklinson, the widow of the right-to-die campaigner Tony, and a claimant known only as AM or "Martin".

Nine of the 12 justices on the supreme court sat on the bench considering the appeals, a sign of the legal sensitivities surrounding the claims. In the court of appeal, the former lord chief justice, Lord Judge, declared such issues were a matter for parliament and that: "the law relating to assisting suicide cannot be changed by judicial decision".

Paul Lamb, 58, who needs 24-hour care, is supporting the case originally brought by Tony Nicklinson, a sufferer of "locked-in syndrome" who died in 2012, a week after losing his high court euthanasia battle.

Their lawyers argue that the prohibition on assisted suicide in the Suicide Act 1961 is incompatible with rights to respect for private and family life as contained in article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

A defence of necessity, they maintain, exists making it lawful for a doctor to assist, or to have assisted, in the suicide of people who have made a voluntary, clear, settled and informed wish to end their lives but were unable to do so on their own.

Lamb experiences constant pain and is constantly on morphine. His condition is, under present medical knowledge, irreversible and he wishes to end his life with the assistance of a medical professional.

Martin is 49,a man who, in August 2008 at the age of 43, suffered a brainstem stroke that left him unable to speak and virtually unable to move. He also wishes to commit suicide, but is unable to do so without assistance.

His legal challenge is slightly different. Since February 2010, when the director of public prosecutions (DPP) guidelines were changed, friends and close family members who take individuals to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland for assisted dying no longer face being charged.

However, Martin's friends and family are unwilling to provide such help so he would have to rely on others. As the legal guidelines now stand, anyone else helping him would be at risk of criminal prosecution.

Martin's lawyers says that the DPP's guidelines should be rewritten because they interfere with his article 8 rights and make the consequences of a person encouraging or assisting him to commit suicide "insufficiently foreseeable".

Under the Suicide Act 1961, helping someone end their life is a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison. A number of organisations have intervened in the case, including Dignity in Dying, the British Humanist Association and Care Not Killing.

Lord Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor, has introduced a private member's bill into the House of Lords aimed at legalising assisted dying. It would permit doctors to administer a lethal dose of drugs to terminally-ill patients given less than six months to live.

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Europe split on right-to-die regulations

French panel recommends legalising assisted suicide

Euthanasia declaration should be renewed regularly
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 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)