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Campaigners lose 'right to die' case | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Campaigners have lost their appeal at the UK's highest court over the right to die. | |
But five of the nine justices concluded the Supreme Court had the "constitutional authority" to declare the current law breaches the right to a private life. | |
Justices ruled against Paul Lamb and Jane Nicklinson by a majority. | |
A third man, Martin, lost his attempt to have the current prosecution guidance on assisted suicide clarified. | |
The cases involve the family of the late Tony Nicklinson, of Wiltshire, who had locked-in syndrome, and Paul Lamb, of Leeds, who was paralysed in a road crash. | |
They wanted the law changed to allow doctors to assist patients to die. | |
A third man, known only as Martin, was seeking clarification of the Director of Public Prosecutions's (DPP's) guidance on the position of health professionals who assist a suicide. | |
Martin wants it to be lawful for a doctor or nurse to help him travel abroad to die with the help of a suicide organisation in Switzerland. His wife and other family want no involvement in his suicide. | |
The Supreme Court unanimously allowed the DPP's appeal against the Court of Appeal's ruling in Martin's favour. | |
Legal battle | |
Paul Lamb, 58, has been almost completely paralysed from the neck down since a car accident more than 20 years ago and says he is in constant pain. | |
He has called for the law to be changed so any doctor who helped him die would have a defence against the charge of murder. | |
Tony Nicklinson was paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke while on a business trip to Athens in 2005. | |
After losing his High Court battle last year, he refused food and died naturally, aged 58, a week later at his home in Wiltshire. His widow, Jane, is continuing his legal battle. |