Express & Star comment: Time for a new look at euthanasia
The harrowing story of Helen Johnson’s wish for a dignified death provides food for thought in the whole debate around assisted suicide.
The 59-year-old travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland after deciding she could no longer cope with the agonising lung disease that was slowly killing her.
She is not alone in making such a decision.
Last year one British person went there every eight days.
Helen was able to have the peaceful death she craved, but there were consequences.
Her partner, James Howley, had travelled to the euthanasia clinic to be by her side in her final moments.
By the time they got to Switzerland, Helen’s lung capacity was just 15 per cent.
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In an incredibly cruel twist, as Helen died in November 2016, thieves ransacked the couple’s home in West Bromwich.
Jewellery and Helen’s computer containing cherished photos were taken by the burglars who wrapped their haul in the last bed sheet she slept in.
A neighbour, not thinking of the implications, told police the couple had gone to Switzerland for Helen to end her life.
It meant that on his return to Britain, 57-year-old James suffered the trauma of being investigated by police for six months on suspicion of assisting a suicide – which is punishable in the UK by up to 14 years in jail.
James finally heard that the case had been dropped in June last year, but by that stage he had gone through unbearable stress and anxiety.
He is now campaigning alongside the charity Dignity in Dying to overturn the UK’s ban on assisted dying.
The issue is highly contentious, and when it went before Parliament three years ago it prompted a heated debate.
The assisted dying bill – put forward by the widely respected former Wolverhampton South West MP Rob Marris – was defeated, but Helen’s case shows that the issue needs to return to Westminster.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, who was against the proposals back then, says he has now changed his mind.
Dying should always be about dignity and respect. It seems wrong on every level to class an act conducted out of compassion as a crime.
It is time for a definitive debate on the issue in the Houses of Parliament.
