Fresh Legal Battle Sparks Euthanasia Debate

The debate over euthanasia and assisted-dying has come to the public eye once again after reports that a 30-year-old terminally ill woman is set to commence a legal battle to force doctors to allow her to die.

Kelly Taylor, from Bristol, who has been given less than a year to live, is calling for doctors to increase her medication to induce a coma-like state. Mrs Taylor, who has heart and lung and spinal conditions - Eisenmenger's syndrome and Klippel-Feil syndrome - has also asked doctors not to provide artificial food or hydration for her.

However, her doctors have refused her requests, saying that obeying them would amount to euthanasia.

However, in a new twist in the debate over euthanasia, Mrs Taylor's lawyers are now planning to use part of the European Convention on Human Rights which bans "inhuman or degrading treatment" to argue that she should not be refused steps which will end her life. The High Court has scheduled a full hearing for the case for the end of March.

The British Medical Association has come out and said that offering morphine with the deliberate intention of ending someone's life was "unlawful and unethical", according to the BBC.

Mrs Taylor's case is thought to be unique as her solicitors are combining two different arguments to try to bring about a change in the laws.

The lawyers will put forward that doctors have a duty to provide her with adequate pain control, even if that hastens her death - a decision known as the "double effect". However, in combination with this, the lawyers will also ask for her "living will", telling doctors not to give her artificial food or hydration, to come into force once she is unconscious from the effects of morphine.

Currently, Mrs Taylor's cardiologist, palliative care consultant and GP have all refused to increase her medication to a level which would result in her entering deep sedation.

She has said according to the BBC: "I don't want to be looked after any more. I want to assert my own independence. I don't really understand why I'm here. I go from day to day just making it through the day. I don't want to be here."

Deborah Arnotts, chief executive of Dignity in Dying said: "Mrs Taylor is in an intolerable position. Her case highlights the impossible dilemma that the current law presents to patients with terminal illness where pain relief and palliative care do not work to relieve their condition."

A spokesperson for United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust said: "Mrs Taylor's doctors have spent much time with her discussing her requested treatment options. The primary responsibility of all doctors is to determine, in consultation with a patient, the treatment that is in that individual's best interest and that is within the boundaries of the law and professional clinical standards," according to the BBC.

Euthanasia is currently illegal in the UK, as is assisted dying, which differs from euthanasia in that a fatal dose of drugs is not administered to the patient by another person. Rather, the patient is provided with the means to carry out the act.

A spokesperson for the British Medical Association said: "While we sympathise with Mrs Taylor's situation, we cannot support her request for doctors to sedate her, to a state of unconsciousness, with the specific intention of ending her life. In our view, this would involve the doctors in assisting her suicide, which is both unlawful and unethical."

Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director for the Care Not Killing Alliance said: "This is a very sad case but what is really needed is not a change in the law to allow lethal injections but access to the highest quality of palliative care to those who need it."