England: Youth and beauty-obsessed woman who failed in suicide attempt has right to refuse treatment

The 50-year-old mother, C, who was married four times and had various lovers overdosed on painkillers washed down with champagne the Court of Protection heard.

As a result of her failed suicide attempt she needs renal dialysis but a judge has ruled she has the mental capacity to refuse dialysis – despite this almost certainly meaning she will die.

Mr Justice Macdonald said C had “led a life characterised by impulsive and self-centred decision making without guilt or regret”.

He added: “C has had four marriages and a number of affairs and has … spent the money of her husbands and lovers recklessly before moving on when things got difficult or the money ran out.

“C is, as all who know her and C herself appears to agree, a person who seeks to live life entirely, and unapologetically on her own terms; that life revolving largely around her looks, men, material possessions and ‘living the high life’.

“It is clear that during her life C has placed a significant premium on youth and beauty and on living a life that, in C’s words, ‘sparkles’.”

The court heard her three daughters said she was an “entirely reluctant and at times completely indifferent mother”.

When one became pregnant C was angry because “she would be a grandmother and that made her feel ‘past her sell-by date’,” the court heard.

A month after a long-term relationship broke down, leading to the loss of her house and business she opened a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, using it to wash down a large number of painkillers.

Two psychiatrists said she lacked the mental capacity to come to a decision over her treatment.

However, she told representatives of the Official Solicitor: “I don’t want to do this life and the way they are presenting it. I am hurting everywhere.”

Her two eldest daughters said she did have the mental capacity.

One said: “My mother would never have wanted to live at all costs.

“To those who know her well, her entire identity has been built around being a self-described ‘vivacious and sociable person who lives life to the full and enjoys having fun’.”

Concluding that she had the right to refuse treatment Mr Justice Macdonald said: “That C considers that the prospect of growing old, the fear of living with fewer material possessions and the fear that she has lost, and will not regain, ‘her sparkle’ outweighs a prognosis that signals continued life will alarm and possibly horrify many.”