269. Choosing to end life voluntarily: My life, my decision
A grieving mother, Wendy Duffy, 56, ended her life at a clinic after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, a pain she couldn’t bear.
Duffy’s son died after choking on a sandwich that became lodged in his windpipe, starving his brain of oxygen.
The British woman has to go to Switzerland because the law doesn’t permit assisted dying in England and Wales. In English law, hers was a case of ‘sane suicide’. Her logic was: “My life, my choice.” And she regretted that this wasn't available in the UK; then she wouldn’t have to go to Switzerland.
Pegasos Swiss Association, a nonprofit organization in Basel, Switzerland, advocates for assisted suicide with minimal bureaucracy. It was established in 2019 by right-to-die activist Habegger.
In Greek mythology, Pegasus is a winged horse that the Pegasos association sees as symbolizing how patients speedily escape gravity on their final journey.
Habegger also described Duffy’s death as a “sane suicide”. He confirmed that Wendy Duffy, at her own request, was assisted to die on 24 April and that the procedure was completed without incident and in full compliance with her wishes.
Wendy Duffy had paid Pegasos £10,000, and her siblings – four sisters and two brothers – knew she had applied to the clinic. She called them in Switzerland to say goodbye and thank them. It must have been very painful for all of them to watch a healthy woman leave the world.
Pegasos assists with medically complex cases, including patients with mental and neurological diseases. In the past, it encountered significant controversy, including in 2020, when a patient aged 40 died at the Pegasos clinic. She had been suffering from severe mental illnesses. The day before she died, her brother warned the clinic not to assist her in dying, and her family threatened to sue the clinic after her death; however, she issued a final statement shortly before her death reaffirming her intent to die and rejecting her brother's claims.
Swiss law forbids euthanasia, like a doctor giving a lethal injection. However, assisted dying—where the person chooses to die and carries out the lethal act themselves—has been legal for many years. By 2024, Pegasos had supported over 4,000 people in ending their lives.
In England, the end-of-life bill for terminally ill adults had been making its way through parliament for the past 18 months, but couldn’t be passed. The bill had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel.
Internationally, attitudes toward assisted dying have shifted significantly over the past three decades. France has approved legislation permitting individuals in the final stages of a terminal illness to access assisted dying.
Since 2015, several countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and Austria, have passed laws allowing assisted dying. In the U.S., it is legally accessible in 10 states.
Personally, I see no issue with this. Questions of morality and the vast reasoning derived from religious texts rarely bring comfort during intense internal suffering. While there are many medicines for physical pain, none can heal a heart mourning a lost child or spouse.
Comforting words such as maintaining a healthy attitude, taking everything in good spirits, and believing it was all destined to happen—things outside of one’s control—often sound like rubbish, especially when, on top of that, it is said that God has decided so and that you must go along with his decision. Where is that God who decides on his own, and who gave him the right to do so? I find the very concept of God funny.
Sometimes, it's better to leave the world on your own terms.