The High Court has rejected Marie Fleming’s challenge to Ireland’s ban on assisted suicide, finding that the law’s protection of life and vulnerable people justified its interference with personal autonomy and equality rights. The court also declined to order the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to issue offence-specific guidelines.
In a judgment delivered on 10 January 2013, President of the High Court Nicholas Kearns, Mr Justice Paul Carney and Mr Justice Gerard Hogan heard Fleming’s case. She argued that section 2(2) of the Criminal Law (Suicide) Act 1993 was unconstitutional and incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Alternatively, she sought an order requiring the DPP to publish factors that would guide decisions on prosecuting someone who assisted her.
Fleming, who had advanced multiple sclerosis, told the court she wanted help to end her life but did not want her partner or children to risk prosecution. The judgment records that medical reports supported her evidence about her condition and decision-making capacity. The State opposed her claims, arguing that the ban served the common good and protected the public interest.
The court accepted that a competent adult’s decision to seek assistance in ending life engaged personal autonomy protected by Article 40.3.2 of the Constitution. It nevertheless held that this did not invalidate the ban. The judges distinguished refusing medical treatment, which a competent adult cannot be compelled to accept, from another person taking active steps to bring about death. They found the prohibition proportionate to the State’s duty to protect life and concluded that an exception could not be safely confined to Fleming’s circumstances.
The court also rejected her equality challenge under Article 40.1, finding the law’s treatment of her disability justified by the same protective considerations. It dismissed her request for a declaration of incompatibility under the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, accepting that the ban was justified under Article 8(2) of the Convention.
On the DPP guidelines claim, the court held that Irish law did not give the Director a duty or power to issue the offence-specific guidelines Fleming sought. It said ordering them could intrude on the Oireachtas’s law-making role. The court did, however, state that after an assisted-suicide event the DPP could consider evidence against the factors in UK prosecution guidelines when deciding whether to prosecute. The DPP must retain the full discretion to decide each case; the judgment gave no advance assurance against prosecution.