Excerpts:
..... Granting application to daughter of 68-year-old woman in end stage of multiple sclerosis, judge concludes it would be disrespectful to keep her alive.....
...... A woman in the end stage of multiple sclerosis has been granted the right to die, in a landmark legal ruling.......
...... The woman’s daughter had told how her mother was “completely incapacitated” and had asked Mr Justice Hayden to allow doctors to stop providing “clinically assisted nutrition and hydration”.......
...... Medical experts said the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was in a “minimally conscious state”, however the judge concluded that it would be disrespectful to the woman to keep her alive in a manner she would “regard as grotesque”.......
...... Granting the application on Thursday, he said the focus of the case was her right to live the last of her days in the way that she would have wished.......
...... “[The woman] now 68 years old is profoundly impaired both physically and cognitively in consequence of the progressive degenerative impact of multiple sclerosis. It is now 23 years since [she] received her diagnosis.”......
...... She told the judge: “I cannot emphasise enough how much the indignity of her current existence is the greatest contradiction to how she thrived on life and, had she been able to express this, then without a doubt she would.”......
...... No one involved opposed the daughter’s application.......
...... Four years ago, a brain-damaged, minimally conscious 52-year-old woman was denied the right to die by another judge.......
...... Mr Justice Baker’s ruling at the time was hailed as a decision which clarified the law relating to the care of the severely disabled.......
...... He had said there was dignity in the life of a disabled person who was well-cared for and kept comfortable and so concluded that life-supporting treatment should not be withdrawn.......
...... Responding to the decision made today, Davina Hehir, director of policy at campaign group Compassion in Dying, said: “This case represents a landmark for the courts taking into account a person’s previously expressed wishes when deciding what treatment they would or would not want.......
...... “The experience of the family in this case must have been harrowing and our hearts go out to them. People can help to avoid these distressing cases by planning ahead for their own treatment.”......
...... “This is the first time that the court of protection has agreed to withdraw treatment from someone receiving life sustaining treatment while considered by medical experts to be in a ‘minimally conscious state’,’ he said.......
...... “The judge has decided that withdrawing the life sustaining treatment is in the woman’s best interests given her current quality of life,” he said.......
...... Campaigners who oppose assisted dying warned the ruling could put vulnerable sick or disabled people at risk. Peter Saunders, director of Care Not Killing said: “This case demonstrates judicial mission creep whereby judges, through subjective application of vague and ambiguous legal precedent, are able to shape and remake the law.......
...... Arrangements will now be made for treatment to be withdrawn in line with national clinical guidelines.......