Right to die case could go to Europe

A terminally ill woman will take her landmark case for assisted suicide to Europe if she loses her appeal, supporters have revealed.

Ireland’s highest court will rule today if multiple sclerosis sufferer Marie Fleming can choose to die peacefully at home in the arms of her partner, Tom Curran, without leaving him with a threat of jail.

The former university lecturer took her appeal to the Supreme Court after losing a legal challenge at the High Court in Dublin.

Mr Curran admitted he is prepared for the worst and revealed his partner will consider taking her case to Europe if defeated again.

“We are not expecting them to overturn the judgment of the High Court,” said Mr Curran.

“We will just have to wait and see and we will have to look at it from there. Europe is an option, it depends on the judgment. If there’s something in it that will allow us to go further we will.

“But I’m preparing us for the worst and I’m assuming it will go against us,” added the 65-year-old carer.

Ms Fleming, 59, of Arklow, Co Wicklow, can only move her head, lives in constant pain, and cannot swallow. She suffers choking episodes which she fears will eventually kill her, the court was told during a hearing in February and March.

She is not expected to attend the hearing, but Mr Curran will be there supported by his partner’s children, Corrina and Simon, and his son David.

Ms Fleming, who is in the final stages of MS, is not asking for someone to kill her, but wants assistance in putting a mask to her face or fitting a cannula in her arm, which she would activate by shaking her head or blowing into.

In her case against the State, the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Fleming claims section 2.2 of the Criminal Law (Suicide) Act, which renders it an offence to aide, abet, counsel, or procure the suicide of another, is unconstitutional on grounds that it breaches her personal autonomy rights under the Irish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Her legal team argued the ban is discriminatory and deprives an “entirely innocent” group of severely disabled people from suicide. They argue that she should be given the same right to die by suicide as an able-bodied person.

Ms Fleming wants court orders and declarations that the section of the act is invalid, allowing her to be lawfully assisted in taking her life.

However, the State argued that the blanket ban on assisted suicide does not discriminate against Ms Fleming, as no one has a constitutional right to be assisted with their death.

The Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, said the case had raised “complex and important constitutional issues” when judgment was reserved.

Three judges at the High Court ruled in January that they could not support allowing a third party to bring about the death of another.

However, they agreed the DPP would exercise discretion in a humane and sensitive fashion as to whether to prosecute or not.