Woman wins right to die case in Britain
An English woman known only as Miss B has won her fight to decide when to turn her life support machine off.
The forty-three year old is paralysed from the neck down, and has been trying to persuade her doctors to switch off her ventilator. A High Court judge said the landmark ruling will allow her life to end peacefully and with dignity.
At the original hearing earlier this month, three screens inside the courtroom showed the woman, who is kept alive by a ventilator, lying in her bed surrounded by a team of lawyers and medical staff.
Dame Elizabeth listened as the 43-year-old former social care professional explained why she wanted to leave the hospital intensive care ward where she has been kept alive for a year and taken to doctors who are prepared to switch off her life support machine.
While hearing the case, the judge expressed fears that she herself could become ``emotionally involved'' in the patient's battle.
After the visit to the hospital, the judge returned to the High Court to continue the legal argument which was relayed back to the hospital for the woman to be involved in the proceedings.
It is believed to be the first time that court proceedings at a hospital have been relayed via video link.
Today Dame Elizabeth, who has made an order prohibiting the naming of the woman, her doctors and the hospital or NHS trust involved, gave her ruling from Birmingham where she is hearing cases on circuit.
Doctors at the hospital say it would be against their ethics to switch off the machine needed to keep the patient alive since a ruptured blood vessel in her neck a year ago left her paralysed and unable to breathe unaided.
