Woman's assisted suicide stopped by Britain's appeals court

LONDON -- A terminally ill woman paralyzed by a degenerative disease lost her case Thursday before Britain's highest appeals court, where she was fighting for the right to die with her husband's help.

Diane Pretty then said she would challenge the decision in the European Court of Human Rights.

Five judges at the House of Lords ruled that Pretty's human rights were not violated by an earlier ruling against her bid to "die with dignity."

Pretty, 43, is paralyzed from the neck down by motor neuron disease and confined to a wheelchair. She challenged the Director of Public Prosecutions' refusal to grant her husband, Brian, immunity if he helped her die.

In October, a lower court agreed that Brian Pretty could not be guaranteed immunity from prosecution. Suicide is legal in Britain, but helping someone else commit suicide is a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The five judges in the House of Lords said they were moved by Diane Pretty's plight, but ruled that Britain's Human Rights Act did not protect Brian Pretty from being charged.

"No one of ordinary sensitivity could be unmoved by the frightening ordeal which faces Mrs. Diane Pretty," said Lord Bingham of Cornhill.

However, he said, the judges could not assess the morality of the right to die, but only apply the law of the land.

Diane Pretty said she was "angry and disappointed" by the ruling and would appeal to the European Court in Strasbourg, France.

"I feel I have no rights," said Pretty, who communicates through a typing machine.

Anti-euthanasia campaigners, who argue that right-to-die legislation would endanger disabled and vulnerable people, were relieved by Thursday's ruling.

"I was really terrified that if she had won my safety would be compromised," said Alison Davis, who suffers from spina bifida, osteoporosis and emphysema. "Fortunately, I am surrounded by people who helped me see you can still be dignified even if you are disabled."

The British Council of Disabled People congratulated the Law Lords.