Healthy woman dies at Swiss suicide clinic

The death of a healthy and active retired nurse who ended her life at aSwiss suicide clinic to avoid deteriorating in old age is a “deeply troubling” case that sends a “chilling message” about society’s views of elderly people, a campaign group said.

Gill Pharaoh, 75, travelled to Switzerland last month to die as she feared growing old and being unable to kill herself.

The former palliative care nurse from Pinner, west London, was not seriously ill or suffering from a terminal disease but felt the quality of her life was declining.

In the weeks before her death last month she wrote on her blog that she was neither “whinging” about life nor “depressed”, but was tired of the restrictions advancing age had placed on her, that her life was “complete” and that she was “ready to die”.

Ms Pharaoh spoke of the frustrations of having tinnitus and losing her hearing, the physical inhibitions brought on by a bout of shingles five years ago that stopped her enjoying gardening and walking, and the “hundred and one other minor irritations” she felt left her with a poor quality of life.

She said: “Day by day I am enjoying my life. I simply do not want to follow this natural deterioration through to the last stage when I may be requiring a lot of help.

“I have to take action early on because no one else will be able to take action for me. The thought that I may need help from my children totally appals me.”

The mother of two ended her life at the Lifecircle assisted-dying clinic in Basel on July 21, with her long-term partner John Southall at her side.

Before her death she told the Sunday Times: “It is not his (John’s) choice at all and my kids are backing me, although it is not their choice.”

Care Not Killing, a group which campaigns against assisted dying, condemned Ms Pharaoh’s case as “deeply troubling”.

A spokesman said: “It sends out a chilling message about how society values and looks after elderly people in the UK. It seeks the introduction of death on demand for those who fear becoming a burden, even if they are otherwise fit and healthy. This is an abhorrent development, but it reveals a truth that some who argue for a change in the law really believe there should be no safeguards or restrictions on assisted killing.”“Indeed this view was recently endorsed by Katie Hopkins who called for euthanasia vans to tour the country terminating the elderly and disabled, which she blames for the NHS financial crisis and bed blocking.“Legalising assistedsuicide and euthanasia will only serve to reinforce deep-seated prejudices that the lives of the sick, disabled and elderly aren’t worth as much as other people’s and lead to many similar cases.