UK: More On The UK Assisted Suicide Decision

Here’s more on the UK courts’ decision to allow a severely disabled man to go ahead and die by assisted suicide.

Stroke Victim Wins Right to Seek Legal Euthanasia

A British stroke victim paralyzed from the neck down and suffering from so-called locked-in syndrome won the right on Monday to seek changes in a law that would enable a doctor to end what he has called “intolerable life” without risking murder charges.

Playing into an emotional debate on assisted suicide for those with severe disabilities, the case brought by the stroke victim, Tony Nicklinson, went one step further since he is physically unable to participate in his own suicide and is thus seeking to make it legal for a physician to take his life.

Mr. Nicklinson, 57, “does accept that he is now inviting the court to cross the Rubicon,” Justice William Charles said as he allowed the case to proceed on two of three arguments presented to him. The Ministry of Justice had sought to quash all three challenges by arguing that it was for Parliament, not the courts, to decide the issue. more