British Law Lords Reject Euthanasia.(Diane Pretty's case)(Brief Article)

A drive to legalize euthanasia in the United Kingdom through the courts failed November 29 when the country's highest tribunal refused Diane Pretty's request that her husband be allowed to kill her. Pretty, a 42-year-old mother of two, has a motor neuron disease.

The five Law Lords ruled unanimously that human rights legislation serves to protect life and not to end it. Pretty's lawyers had argued that Britain's ban on assisted suicide obstructed her human rights and right to privacy.

A London newspaper, The Guardian, reported that Lord Bingham, one of the five Law Lords, explained that the European Human Rights Convention contains no guarantee for assisted suicide and pointed out that the Netherlands alone permits it in Europe. Regardless of the benefits that some people claim from the practice of euthanasia, they do not stem from or deserve protection under the European Convention right guarding the sanctity of human life, he said.

According to British news services, Pretty began her legal battle months ago when she petitioned the director of public prosecution not to charge her husband, Brian Pretty, with a crime if he helped her to take her life. The prosecutor refused and Pretty challenged the decision in high court, where she lost on October 18.

On November 1, The Guardian reported that Pretty's case would be heard on appeal by the five Law Lords. They reached their unanimous decision in less than a month.

Diane Pretty's condition was diagnosed in 1999 and has progressed even as she has argued for the right to be killed.

In the early stages of the legal process, Reuters news service reported that she was often seen smiling outside of courthouses with her husband at her side. But by the end of November she depended on a wheelchair and a feeding tube, and had no decipherable speech.