UK mom gets legal death rights for ailing daughter

London: A mother in the U.K. has made legal history after winning a High Court case, that allowed her to make the heart-wrenching decision to end the life of her severely disabled 12-year-old daughter Nancy.

When Nancy Fitzmaurice was born blind and suffering from hydrocphalus, meningitis and septicaemia the outcome for her was a life in which she would be unable to talk, walk, eat or even drink.

That life was to be spent at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital where she would receive round-the-clock care, while being fed, watered and medicated through a tube. Not a quality of life that any parent dreams of for their child.

Nancy’s devoted mother, Charlotte, who gave up work to dedicate her life to the care of Nancy – discovered the limits of how much suffering she could let her daughter endure after routine surgery left 12-year-old Nancy screaming in agony.

Charlotte thought that enough was enough, and made a choice no parent should ever have to make. After 12 heartbreaking years of watching her daughter suffer, she took the only course of action she felt was left to them both: to end her child’s life.

However, Charlotte and Great Ormond Street fought on behalf of Nancy, to give her the right to die. Charlotte’s presented a 324-word statement to the court, pleading for mercy and begging the system to understand that her daughter should no longer suffer. Charlotte explained that her daughter longed for peace.

Justice Eleanor King at the High Court of Justice agreed. Justice King was able to look beyond what had been allowed in the past, noting Charlotte’s love for Nancy and declaring a ‘great admiration’ of her dedication to her daughter.

A ruling that set a precedent as the first time a child breathing on their own, not on life support and not suffering from a terminal illness, would be allowed to die.