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For immediate release
23rd January 2002

Mrs Pretty goes to the European Court

Following the news that Mrs Diane Pretty's case will be heard in the European Court of Human Rights and that her case will be "fast-tracked", Dr Michael Hewitt-Wilson, ALERT's Deputy Chairman, said:

"The European Convention on Human Rights was drawn up when the world still remembered the Nazi euthanasia programme that totally devalued people with disabilities.

"Article 2, which lays down that everyone has the right to life, must rule out the killing of sick people even with their consent. We profoundly hope the European Court will say this, as the Law Lords did.

"We fully accept that Mrs Pretty herself is not under any pressure to ask for her life to be ended, to save her carers trouble, but the law is the law for everyone. If it were changed, the message would go out to everyone who needs care that their life was no longer valuable to society."

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