Terminally-ill Aussie dies after court win

An Australian quadriplegic who last month won the landmark legal right to starve himself to death by preventing his carers from feeding him died on Monday, his family said.

Severely paralysed Christian Rossiter, 49, died in a nursing home in the western city of Perth in the early hours of Monday after developing a chest infection, his brother Tim Rossiter said in a statement. “I thank all those who have made Christian’s life, in his final years, as comfortable and as dignified as possible,” he said.

Lawyer John Hammond, who five weeks ago won a court battle that allowed Rossiter to refuse food and water, said his passing would have come as a “relief”. “I think Christian will be remembered as someone who was very brave and took up a fight which will give a lot of people comfort,” Hammond told Channel Seven television. “Essentially he won the right to refuse food and medication so he could die if he wanted to,” he said.

In the historic ruling, a court ruled in August that Rossiter, a former stockbroker and adventurer who became a quadriplegic following two separate accidents, had the right to refuse to be fed.

Western Australia’s chief judge Wayne Martin said Rossiter had the right to direct his own treatment and that his carers, Brightwater Care Group, would not be criminally responsible if it complied with his wishes.