A 59-year-old woman in Ireland paralyzed with severe multiple sclerosis has lost her court fight against the nation’s ban on assisted suicide, reports the Irish Times. Marie Fleming sought permission to end her life with the help of her partner of 18 years, but Dublin’s High Court rejected the request, reports Reuters.
“There are no words to express the difficulty we had in arriving at this decision,” wrote one judge. “Yet the fact remains that if this court were to unravel a thread of this law by even the most limited constitutional adjudication in her favour, it would—or at least might—open a Pandora’s box which would be impossible to close.”
The judge called Fleming “in many ways the most remarkable witness” he and his fellow judges had ever encountered, and the court ordered the state to pay her legal costs. Fleming’s lawyer read a statement on her behalf, saying she was “very disappointed and saddened” at the ruling. She can still appeal.