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CNN Live Today

British Woman Wins Landmark Right-to-Die Case

Aired March 22, 2002 - 14:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A federal judge in Portland, Oregon hears arguments today in a federal challenge to the nation's only assisted suicide law.

Four years ago, Oregon voters gave doctors authority to prescribe lethal drug doses for terminally ill patients wanting to die. Last November, the U.S. justice department told doctors in Oregon those prescriptions could cost them their federal licenses. Oregon now is asking the court to make a temporary injunction against the federal action permanent.

As Oregon defends its assisted suicide law, a woman in Britain now has won a landmark right-to-die case. From London now, her story with CNN's Diana Muriel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Miss B's fight for the right to die ended here, at Britain's high court. From her hospital bed where she lies, breathing only with the aid of a ventilator, Miss B learned via a videolink from the court that she had won the right to have the machine turned off.

The court had to determine that Miss B was sufficiently capable to make that choice. Psychiatrist Dr. Tom Sensky, who examines Miss B on behalf of the court, said she was.

DR. TOM SENSKY, COURT-APPOINTED PSYCHIATRIST: I was struck by how carefully she had considered her options and how carefully she had gone into the decisions that she was going to take.

MURIEL: For Miss B, the medical technology that keeps her alive is a curse. For others, like tetraplegic Tim Round, it is a blessing. Fourteen years ago, he severed his spine in a car accident. He was immediately placed on a ventilator, but has subsequently undergone revolutionary surgery that enables him to use a phrenic pacemaker, a machine the size of a portable CD player, to stimulate the muscles in his diaphragm allowing him to breathe.

Tim has a team of nurses and carers that look after him 12 hours a day. His family take over at night. But he says its up to individuals to make the best of the situation.

TIM ROUND, TETRAPLEGIC: Find out what things are available, because there's a lot available (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to make your quality of life, lots of operations, OK, they're operations that may be big ones, and you may not want them, but they will make your standard of life a lot higher.

MURIEL (on camera): Independent-minded Tim Round now runs his own successful business, a sports shop, here in the small Shropshire town of Bridgnorth. It is his own personal determination to achieve the highest quality of life possible that has seen him through the hard times. But not everyone in a similar situation shares Tim's drive and motivation.

SUSAN LANDER, NURSE: I have known people not willing to try at all. And even with very, very positive carers around, it is still up to that individual. Do they really want to make a go of their life or not? It's really up to them.

MURIEL: For Miss B, the prospect of life in a wheelchair, unable to breathe unaided, and totally dependent on the care of others, is unacceptable. The court here on Friday has enabled Miss B to make her choice to die. She is now expected to transfer to the intensive care unit of a leading hospital, where the medical team has agreed to switch her ventilator off.

Diana Muriel, CNN, London.

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