Lawyers for terminally ill woman Marie Fleming say it is a Constitutional right to decide to terminate your own life.
The 58 year old mother of two, who has multiple sclerosis, is challenging the law which criminalises assisted suicide.
Marie Fleming needs help to fulfil her wish of dying peacefully in the arms of her longterm partner Tom Curran at their home in Arklow, Co Wicklow.
However she’s afraid that if he offers assistance he may be prosecuted under s2.2 of the Criminal Law Suicide Act of 1993.
The former UCD lecturer claims the provision is unconstitutional and incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as it breaches her rights to privacy and dignity.
Today her legal team are arguing that if the law is in place to protect the common good in discouraging suicide it is not being applied equally as able bodied people are free from legal sanction.
They’re trying to prove she has a right to decide to terminate her own life but it is a right that is not expressly stated in the Constitution.
