‘People should be able to go in a civilised way’

IN April last year, Parkinson’s sufferer Andrew Tyler, 70, ended his life in the Dignitas clinic, in Zurich, Switzerland.

The former NME journalist left an emotional video diary pleading: “People should be allowed and helped to go in a more civilised manner.” His widow Sara Starkey, 72, said yesterday: “The BMA’s stance is appalling, they seem to have no empathy at all. When people are kept alive against their will, it leaves friends and family haunted.

“They have to watch this horror show unfolding over weeks, if not months or years. For Andrew to have died in our home and in his own time would have been amazing.

“What the BMJ has done is very brave and I can’t thank them enough... There needs to be checks and balances, but the current situation is inhuman.”