Death pact by UK couple concerning
The mutually agreed deaths of a leading British conductor and his terminally ill wife have again raised the difficult issue of legalised assisted dying when one of a couple is still in reasonable health.
Conductor Sir Edward Downes, 85, and his wife Joan, 74, who was suffering from terminal cancer, travelled to a Swiss ‘suicide’ clinic last week accompanied by their son and daughter, where the combined act was carried out.
The incident is being investigated by police and has again led to church leaders and campaigners renewing their opposition to legalised assisted dying amid fears that more elderly couples will engage in “together forever” suicide pacts.
Alastair Thompson, of the United Kingdom Care Not Killing Alliance, said that such deaths risked “lowering the moral bar. It says that if you are old and frail and feeling a bit rough then it is OK to be euthanased. It makes death a lifestyle choice and places an intolerable burden on husbands and wives who could feel pressured into euthanasing themselves alongside their partners even though they are not unwell”.
Debbie Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has fought to have the law on assisted suicide clarified, told the London Times newspaper : “Who are the rest of us to tell Sir Edward Downes what he should or should not have borne? As a conductor, knowing he was losing his sight and his hearing must have been unbearable”.
