A TERMINALLY ill woman has won a landmark court victory giving her the right to be blown up by the Army.
Margaret Hobbs, who suffers from a rare and incurable form of hay fever, has campaigned for six years for the right to end her life using one of Britain’s most respected artillery regiments.
The 48-year-old from Stevenage said: “This is a victory for every terminally ill person who doesn’t want to die tediously in some dreary Swiss clinic surrounded by medical bores.”
The Court of Appeal yesterday awarded Mrs Johnson the right to wander around a minefield on Salisbury Plain while being bombarded by L118 field guns from the Royal Artillery’s 29th Commando Regiment.
But Dr Norman Steele, vice-chairman of the British Medical Association, criticised the decision. “Doctors are keen to ensure that the patient’s end of life wishes are respected, but that is very different from being targeted by cannon fire.”
Mrs Hobbs’s husband Roy, aged 46, said he would be more than willing to help aim the gun and fire it, adding: “Though I’ll need professional help. I’ve never used a light howitzer with live rounds.”
An Army spokesman said: “We did originally offer to strap her to an old Ford Sierra and lob grenades through the sunroof, but she was very keen that we use something which, in her words, ‘has that lovely traditional shelling arc’.
He added: “It’s such a dignified way to die. I wouldn’t mind going out like that myself.”
