Call for judges to halt slide into eugenic cleansing London, : The English courts should stop handing down judgments sanctioning the killing of disabled people, says leading pro-life group SPUC Pro-Life.

SPUC Pro-Life was responding to the first hearing in a case before the High Court in London, in which a woman is seeking to have assisted food and fluids removed from her brain-damaged daughter.

Paul Tully, SPUC Pro-Life’s general secretary, commented: "Since the 1992 Bland judgment, the English courts have established a trend of judgments which allow the killing of brain-damaged patients by starvation and dehydration. Such rulings are squarely contrary to the equal right to life of all human persons mandated by international human rights conventions. This case is about a human being. Whatever limitations she might have - of consciousness, feelings and so on - she still has a right to live her life, and that right must be protected and supported by the community. The supply of food and fluids, however administered, is not medical treatment but simply basic nursing care. "We call upon the High Court to stop authorising lethal discrimination against the disabled, and stop repeating the false legal and ethical arguments it has used to justify such killings in the past", concluded Mr Tully.