The high court ruled today that a terminally ill woman did not have the right to commit suicide with the help of her husband.

Diane Pretty, 42, had challenged the refusal by the director of public prosecutions, David Calvert-Smith, to rule out taking action against her husband if he helps her take her own life.

Ms Pretty, who has two children, was diagnosed with the incurable motor neurone disease in 1999. It has degenerated to an advanced stage and she is confined to a wheelchair, paralysed from the neck down.

Her lawyers, backed by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and the civil rights group Liberty, had argued that by denying her the chance to "die with dignity", the law was infringing her human rights.

Philip Havers QC had told the court on her behalf that her condition had impaired the quality of her life so badly that she wanted to be able to choose when to die.

He had argued that Ms Pretty was "frightened and distressed at the suffering and indignity she will have to endure if the disease is allowed to run its course".

Because of her condition, she is unable to take her own life without assistance.

The lawyers had argued that by denying her the chance to commit suicide with the help of her husband of 25 years, the government was subjecting her to inhuman and degrading treatment, in breach of the European convention on human rights.