Quadriplegic man wins legal right to to starve himself to death while watching TV

A man who became a quadriplegic after a road accident has been given the legal right to starve to death while watching TV. A court in Perth, Western Australia, granted the suicidal wish of 49- year-old Mr Christian Rossiter, who said he wanted to die by not eating or drinking.

Once an active sportsman who enjoyed rock climbing, former stockbroker Mr Rossiter told the Supreme Court of West Australia that his condition meant he could not even blow his nose or 'wipe the tears from my eyes.'

Asking the court to be given permission to have all nutrition stopped at the nursing home where he is being cared for, he said his last wish would be for painkillers to make him drowsy and to be watching TV 'to make the time pass' before he died.



'I want to say that the painkillers make me drowsy and I would like to be made drowsy in my final moments so the time would pass more quickly,' he told the court, speaking through a tracheotomy tube.'And I would like to watch Foxtel on the television to pass the time.'

Chief Justice Wayne Martin said the Brightwater Care nursing home should follow the wishes of Mr Rossiter, adding that anyone who stopped giving him nutrition and hydration through a tube to his stomach would not be criminally responsible.

The ruling sets a legal precedent in Australia, where assisting someone to take their own life is a crime punishable by life in prison in some States. The judge added that any person providing palliative care, making his last days easier, would also not be criminally responsible.