Ban on assisted suicide ‘unconstitutional’

Society’s interest in disco-uraging suicide does not justify the State’s blanket ban on assisted suicide in the case of a terminally ill woman who wants to die at a time of her choosing but is unable to take her own life, the High Court was told yesterday.

The ban on assisted suicide is unconstitutional, unnecessary, unjustified, disproportionate, and irreconcilable with the right of Marie Fleming, aged 58, to a dignified death in a manner and timing of her choice, her senior counsel Brian Murray argued.

It was the second day of the landmark action by Ms Fleming, of Co Wicklow, to establish a right to end her life with assistance.