A British woman terminally ill with motor neurone disease today won the first round of a legal battle to establish that her husband should have the right to help her die.
Mother of two Mrs Diane Pretty (42) was given permission by a High Court judge to challenge a refusal by the director of public prosecutions to rule out taking action against her husband of 25 years if he helps her take her own life.
Mr Justice Silber in London said he wanted the full hearing to be held as soon as possible.
Mrs Pretty, from Luton, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease - which is untreatable - in 1999 and is now confined to a wheelchair.
Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is illegal in the UK, and doctors who help a patient to die can be charged with murder.
But a 1998 study found as many as 27,000 people in the UK have been helped to die by their doctors either withholding treatment or prescribing lethal doses of drugs.
The British Medical Association caused more controversy in 1999 when it published guidance saying doctors could withhold food and drink from dying patients.
Anti-euthanasia campaigners want medical students to have to swear the Hippocratic Oath, under which doctors affirm they will do no harm to their patients. The swearing of the oath has dwindled in recent years.
PA