Assisted dying: Woman who ended life at Dignitas calls for change to ‘cruel’ law
A woman compelled by circumstances to end her life at Dignitas left a recorded message urging a change in assisted dying laws.
Paola Marra, diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer, passed away at the Swiss clinic where individuals facing incurable illnesses or intolerable suffering can opt for euthanasia. Ms. Marra, aged 53 and from London, voiced her perspective in a posthumously released video.
Presently, UK legislation prohibits individuals from seeking medical assistance to end their lives. Assisted dying has sparked heated discussions, especially after broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen revealed in December her decision to join Dignitas due to her stage four cancer diagnosis.
Opponents express concerns about the potential coercion of vulnerable individuals into choosing assisted dying.
In two videos shared on Thursday, Ms. Marra expressed her intent to travel to Switzerland for an assisted death because she felt there were no viable options in her home country.
She emphasized her refusal to let her terminal illness dictate her life’s terms and described the agonizing decline in dignity and independence.
Ms. Marra portrayed assisted dying as a means to reclaim control and preserve dignity, not as an act of surrendering to death.
In an accompanying open letter, she implored political leaders to heed the voices of terminally ill individuals like herself and to promptly debate assisted dying in Parliament.
“I could have had more time with my friends and people who love me [if assisted dying was legal],” she said.
“But instead, I will have to go to Dignitas on my own because I don’t want them to be questioned by the police or get into trouble.”
She added: “I resent that I don’t have a choice. I think it’s unfair and cruel. And for so many dying people who can’t afford to pay an average of £15,000 to travel to Dignitas, this cruel law will force them to endure a painful death, or drive them to take their own lives.”
Dignitas arranges accompanied suicide for people who have an illness leading “inevitably to death, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability”, and want to voluntarily end their life.
Canadian-born Ms Marra was speaking in a video filmed by prominent photographer Rankin and promoted by the Dignity in Dying campaign group, which believes assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults should be legal in the UK.
Dignitas arranges accompanied suicide for people who have an illness leading “inevitably to death, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability”, and want to voluntarily end their life.
Canadian-born Ms Marra was speaking in a video filmed by prominent photographer Rankin and promoted by the Dignity in Dying campaign group, which believes assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults should be legal in the UK.
Laws throughout the UK prevent people from asking for medical help to die.
An inquiry by the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee found evidence that assisted dying has led to better end-of-life care in some countries where it is allowed.
Both the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing have neutral positions on assisted dying, but others argue the current legal position should remain the same.
Dr. Gordon Macdonald, of the anti-assisted dying campaign group Care Not Killing, said he was worried criteria for assisted dying could in time be extended beyond terminally ill people to include those with disabilities and conditions such as dementia and depression.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, a leading critic of legalizing assisted dying, said there are concerns vulnerable people could be coerced into pursuing assisted dying.
She previously said it was not always the “Hollywood death” that some might imagine and that complications could arise once lethal drugs enter the body.
Meanwhile, Baroness Ilora Findlay, a crossbench member of the Lords and former president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said evidence from countries where assisted dying laws had changed showed it was difficult to regulate properly.
At the time of Dame Esther’s announcement, she told the Today program that the situation in Canada, where assisted death became legal for those with terminal illnesses in 2016 and was expanded to those with serious and chronic physical conditions in 2021, was “out of control”.
