Teenage Girl, Hannah Jones, Wins Right to Die

A terminally ill, 13 year old girl, has won the right to die after a hospital ended its bid to force her to have a heart operation.

The girl, Hannah Jones, has a hole in her heart due to medications she has been taking since the age of five when she had leukemia. "Hannah had been through enough already and to have the added stress of a possible court hearing or being forcibly taken into hospital is disgraceful," said her father Andrew.

Herefordshire Primary Care Trust dropped a High Court case after a child protection officer said Hannah was adamant she did not want the transplant surgery because the surgery itself has the potential to kill her. If the surgery did work, it would then be followed by constant medication.

The BBC's Jane Deith, who has followed Hannah's legal battle, said: "Hannah managed to convince this officer that this was a decision she had made on her own and she had thought about it over a long period of time, and eventually the court proceeding was dropped."

"She didn't take the decision lightly, and she had chosen that she wanted to live and die in dignity at home with her parents."