Judges to rule on woman’s assisted suicide

A specially convened, three-judge division of the High Court is to decide whether a 59-year-old woman, in the final stages of multiple sclerosis, has a constitutional right to an assisted suicide.

Former UCD law lecturer Marie Fleming, who has the incurable and debilitating disease, has asked the High Court to rule on her case.

The High Court yesterday heard wheelchair-user Ms Fleming from Co Wicklow is past the point where she could take her own life unaided, but wants to establish the right to end her life with the aid of someone else. She already has difficulties swallowing and speaking.

Ms Fleming’s action is aimed at sparing her partner and full- time carer, Tom Curran, the threat of imprisonment because he had said he is prepared to assist her in ending her life.

Mr Curran, an IT professional, is the co-ordinator of the Irish branch of Exit International, an end-of-life information organisation that campaigns for the State to legislate for assisted suicide.

A specially convened division of the High Court — comprising its president Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, and Mr Justice Paul Carney — will hear Ms Fleming’s case on Dec 4 next.

While suicide is not illegal, it is an offence under the Criminal Law Suicide Act 1993 for a person to be an accomplice to such an act and attracts a jail sentence of up to 14 years.

Counsel for Ms Fleming, Ronan Murphy SC, told Mr Justice Kearns she was challenging the constitutionality of that law in so far as it interferes with her rights to autonomy and dignity.

Counsel said he was seeking an early date for the hearing of the case because she is in the final stages of MS and past the point of ending her life without assistance.

In her claim against Ireland, the Attorney General and the DPP, Ms Fleming seeks an order declaring section 2(2) of the 1993 act invalid under the Constitution and incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Alternatively, she wants an order from the court requiring the DPP to issue guidelines stating what factors will be taken into account when a decision is being made whether to prosecute a person who assists her in ending her life.

In an interview last September, Mr Curran said Marie, who requires round- the-clock care, “may never exercise the decision” to end her life, but he was willing to go to prison if needs be: “It would give Marie such comfort, such peace of mind, to know that I will be there for her and that she will not have to

suffer needlessly.”

Five years ago, Ms Fleming registered with Dignitas, the clinic in Zurich, Switzerland, where terminally ill patients can bring about their own deaths under the supervision of qualified doctors.

But Ms Fleming did not travel after Mr Curran vowed that he would assist her to die at a time of her choosing — even if it meant going to jail.

Mr Justice Kearns said it was a very important case with far-reaching implications and he was proposing to convene a division of the court.

He fixed Dec 4 as the date for the hearing.