Quadriplegic granted right to die

PERTH: A landmark court decision to allow the wishes of a Perth quadriplegic to stop being fed by a nursing home has opened the door for people who want to die by starvation, his lawyer says.

In the West Australian Supreme Court yesterday, Chief Justice Wayne Martin said it would be unlawful for the nursing home operator, Brightwater Care Group, to continue to feed and hydrate Christian Rossiter through a tube to his stomach against his wishes.

Martin also said any person providing palliative care to 49-year-old Rossiter would not be criminally responsible if the use of painkillers did not deliberately cause or hasten his death.

He said Mr Rossiter, who lost all body movement after he was hit by a car in 2004 and suffered two falls in 2008 which led to spastic quadriplegia, had the right to direct his treatment.

Martin said it was his task to apply the law to the case dispassionately and it was important to emphasise what the case was "not about".

"It's not about euthanasia ... nor is it about the right to life," he told the court.

The tragedy of Rossiter's situation was "profoundly significant but irrelevant" to the legal decision, Martin said.

Rossiter is not terminally ill or dying. While he lacked the physical capacity to effect his own death, he had the mental capacity to make an informed decision, he said.

Martin said that after Rossiter had been given advice by medical practitioners, Brightwater "may not lawfully continue" feeding him and would not be criminally responsible for his death. "They are entirely matters for Mr Rossiter."

Rossiter, aided by a nurse, was in the WA Supreme Court yesterday.

He had told the court he was of sound mind and that he wanted to die in WA.

- AAP