The One
8th December 2011, 13:01
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Geraldine said she was not sad that she was going to die but angry at the government's cowardice
Our country goes to war and kills innocent victims but do not allow their own citizens to die in dignity.
A woman who travelled abroad to die told Sky News that politicians denied her the dignity of ending her life in her own home
Geraldine McClelland, 61, had terminal cancer and chose not to suffer the final stages of the disease.
Instead she went to the Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas where doctors can legally help someone to die.
Shortly before travelling there she said the law in Britain should be changed to permit assisted suicide.
I would like to die where and when I want to die with the people around me that I choose," she said.
"It's important for my family to be with me. And that's a difficult thing to do in England. You have to go somewhere else."
In an open letter she wrote shortly before her death on Wednesday she called for action.
"It's too late to change the law for me, but please, if you care about this issue at all please make our voices heard.
"I appreciate that it is a difficult subject, but when dying cannot be avoided, let us be compassionate enough and tolerant enough to respect choice."
Assisted dying is illegal in England and Wales under the Suicide Act 1961 and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
But the Director of Public Prosecutions issued guidelines last year which said that the motives of those assisting suicide would determine whether they would be charged.
The campaign group Dignity In Dying http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/ says this means a professional who assists in a death is more likely to be prosecuted than a family member. It wants the law changed.
But the organisation Care Not Killing is opposed to any erosion of the law. It says vulnerable people who believe they are a burden on others could feel obliged to die.
Assisted suicide is tightly controlled in Switzerland. Ms McClelland had to prove that she was terminally ill and had to convince two doctors that she wanted to die.
But she is angry that her final weeks were taken up with travel arrangements.
"It's become about paperwork, photocopiers, is my printer working?" she said.
"I should be looking deeply within my soul about what my life has been and I haven't been able to do so because that time has been taken away from me by our system - and it needs to change."
Read Geraldine McClelland's letter http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16125895
Geraldine said she was not sad that she was going to die but angry at the government's cowardice
Our country goes to war and kills innocent victims but do not allow their own citizens to die in dignity.
A woman who travelled abroad to die told Sky News that politicians denied her the dignity of ending her life in her own home
Geraldine McClelland, 61, had terminal cancer and chose not to suffer the final stages of the disease.
Instead she went to the Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas where doctors can legally help someone to die.
Shortly before travelling there she said the law in Britain should be changed to permit assisted suicide.
I would like to die where and when I want to die with the people around me that I choose," she said.
"It's important for my family to be with me. And that's a difficult thing to do in England. You have to go somewhere else."
In an open letter she wrote shortly before her death on Wednesday she called for action.
"It's too late to change the law for me, but please, if you care about this issue at all please make our voices heard.
"I appreciate that it is a difficult subject, but when dying cannot be avoided, let us be compassionate enough and tolerant enough to respect choice."
Assisted dying is illegal in England and Wales under the Suicide Act 1961 and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
But the Director of Public Prosecutions issued guidelines last year which said that the motives of those assisting suicide would determine whether they would be charged.
The campaign group Dignity In Dying http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/ says this means a professional who assists in a death is more likely to be prosecuted than a family member. It wants the law changed.
But the organisation Care Not Killing is opposed to any erosion of the law. It says vulnerable people who believe they are a burden on others could feel obliged to die.
Assisted suicide is tightly controlled in Switzerland. Ms McClelland had to prove that she was terminally ill and had to convince two doctors that she wanted to die.
But she is angry that her final weeks were taken up with travel arrangements.
"It's become about paperwork, photocopiers, is my printer working?" she said.
"I should be looking deeply within my soul about what my life has been and I haven't been able to do so because that time has been taken away from me by our system - and it needs to change."
Read Geraldine McClelland's letter http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16125895