Diane Prettys case reaction to European Court ruling

The European Court of Human Rights today ruled against Diane Pretty's case that UK law violated her human rights in preventing her seeking help to die.

At a press conference today, Diane said: "The law has taken away all my rights".
Diane and Brian Pretty also announced that they would continue to campaign for a change in the law, via means including a public email petition on the website www.justice4Diane.org.uk.

The statement made at the same press conference by Mona Arshi, the Liberty solicitor who took Diane's case, is reproduced below.

"We are disappointed that Diane has lost her case, both for her and for others like her. We really believe that the ECHR had an opportunity to remedy the defects in the current law which place Diane in such a tragic trap. It seems odd that that Diane Pretty does not have a right to die how she wishes, even when a court has recently upheld Ms B's right to require doctors to turn off her life support machine.

"We call on the government now to take action to help those few people in the same extreme position who in future make the same choice as Diane.

"The Director of Public Prosecutions could publish a policy setting out when he will not prosecute those who assist in the suicide of the terminally ill. The House of Lords last year held that the DPP could publish such a policy and the government relied on the DPP's discretionary powers to justify their position before the European Court. Such a published policy would offer hope to the terminally ill without Parliament having to change the law at this stage - but ultimately the law should change.

"Diane's determined pursuit of her rights through the law has put this issue and the injustice of a law that discriminates against her firmly in the public eye; her fight should not be in vain, nor should it be forgotten".