Irish MS sufferer plans assisted suicide in Switzerland

AN Irishman with a terminal illness has made plans to travel to Switzerland for an assisted suicide.

Martin Barry, from Glasheen in Cork, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years ago and now uses a wheelchair daily.

Yesterday, he disclosed on RTÉ’s Marian Finucane radio show that he has made pans for his own death.

“With patients in the terminal stages of an illness like this there is little dignity. I have seen this with my own grandmother when she was dying of cancer and screaming for more drugs,” he said.

He said he intended to go to Switzerland in the latter stages of the illness and be given a lethal dose of morphine.

Asserting too much of a taboo surrounds euthanasia in Ireland, Mr Barry, a post graduate student at University College Cork, said: “When my time comes I would, of course, prefer to die in my own country surrounded by the people I love. I do not relish the idea of going to Switzerland to die in a strange country. I would rather not be an exile in my own death.”

He told listeners he was forced to make plans for his death during the most severe stage of the illness.

“For two years solidly I had relentless pain every day and watched my body deteriorate.”

Mr Barry has a particularly virulent form of the disease. “MS is a neurological illness and happens in 10 stages. I went from stage one to stage seven in less than five years.

“Mine was quite acute and when I asked my neurologist what the worst case scenario was, he said two years. I did not want to end up in a nursing home requiring constant care in my 30s.”

Mr Barry added that he wanted to live with dignity and die with dignity. “I did not want to endure a painful, cruel death propped up with morphine.”

Last year he joined an organisation based in Zurich called Dignitas which arranges euthanasia for people with terminal illnesses.

“Since I made my choice, I have regained my dignity and life has been a dream. It has released me from the terror of facing a horrible and painful death. This is not murder or mercy killing. It is an act of self-deliverance.”