Mr Justice Peter Jackson said the 32-year-old woman, who has not eaten solid food for a year, might one day come to realise she was a “special person whose life is of value”. Explaining his decision for her to be given life-saving treatment that neither she nor her family want, he said: “We only live once – we are born once and we die once – and the difference between life and death is the biggest difference we know.” 
 
 The judge said it was the first time he had dealt with a case in which providing life-sustaining treatment might not be in the “best interest” of a patient who was “fully aware” of their condition. “The judge has made a wise and courageous decision,” he said. "She sees her life as pointless and wants to be allowed to make her own choices, realising that refusal to eat must lead to her death." Delivering his decision at the court of protection in London, the judge said it was a very difficult decision to make in a situation requiring "a balance to be struck between the weight objectively to be given to life on one hand and to personal independence on the other". “E’s case has raised for the first time in my experience the real possibility of life-sustaining treatment not being in the best interests of a person who, while lacking capacity, is fully aware of her situation,” the judge said. Explaining the reasons for his decision, the judge said: "At its simplest, the balance to be struck places the value of E's life in one scale and the value of her personal independence in the other, with these transcendent factors being weighed in the light of the reality of her actual situation." She does not see it that way now, but she may in future." The judge went on: "I would not overrule her wishes if further treatment was futile, but it is not. Although extremely burdensome to E, there is a possibility that it will succeed.” 
 
 The woman’s illness dates back to her childhood. E's case came before the court last month when an urgent application was made by her local authority, which also cannot be identified, which was "concerned that her position should be investigated and protected".
– A 32-year-old suffering from extreme anorexia was ordered yesterday by a British court to be force-fed in order to save her life, reports the Guardian. Several people who know the woman asked that she be left to die a "dignified death," but the judge ruled that she lacked the capacity to make a proper judgment about her own treatment. While the judge recognized the woman's right to live her own life independently, "it is lawful and in her best interests for her to be fed, forcibly if necessary." The woman, a former medical student, has not eaten any solid food in more than a year, and now has a body-mass index of just 11.3 (normal is about 20, while less than 15 is considered severely underweight), according to the Telegraph. After such an extreme starvation diet, the unnamed woman reportedly has only a 20% chance of living, even if forced to eat, an invasive treatment that could last up to a year. "E is a special person, whose life is of value," wrote the judge. "She does not see it that way now, but she may in future."