The House of Lords today agreed to hear terminally-ill Diane Pretty's plea for the right to die with her husband Brian's help.

Mrs Pretty successfully petitioned a committee of three law lords for the right to appeal to the House of Lords against a high court ruling on October 18 that the law did not allow a "family member to help a loved one to die".

Lord Bingham, sitting with Lord Hope and Lord Scott, said of the case: "We are conscious of the fact it raises issues with which the courts in this country have not had a previous occasion to deal."

Mrs Pretty, 42, of Luton, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1999. She is paralysed from the neck down, has to be fed by tube, and has no decipherable speech, though her intellect is unimpaired.

At the high court last month, she had unsuccessfully attempted to challenged the refusal by the director of public prosecutions, David Calvert-Smith, to rule out taking action against her husband if he helped her take her own life. Aiding or abetting a suicide carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

Mrs Pretty had argued that the blanket legal ban on assisting a suicide denied her the right to "die with dignity" and breached the European convention on human rights.

Her condition means that she is physically unable to kill herself and she wants her husband to help her "when the time comes".

The Motor Neurone Disease Association has said the case highlights the "cruel and devastating" illness. The association "neither supports nor opposes" Mrs Pretty's case.