Patients ‘need a right to die with dignity’

‘Not living, just existing’

THE grieving daughter of a multiple sclerosis patient has told MSPs that patients should have the right to assisted suicide.

Tracey Taylor’s mother Flora Lorimer suffered an agonising death last year.

The 68-year-old’s body was ravaged by the disease and she was paralysed from the neck down.

She had begged her family to end her life as she wasted away, but they were powerless to do so.

This week Mrs Taylor went to the Scottish parliament to say why they felt her mother should have had the right to die.

Addressing Holyrood’s crossparty group on end of life choices on Monday night, Mrs Taylor, from Glenrothes, Fife, described her family’s experiences of caring for her mother during her 40-year battle with the disease.

Mrs Lorimer was diagnosed with the debilitating condition at the age of 21. Her movements became increasingly restricted, with a half-mile stroll to the shops taking longer than an hour.

Eventually the greatgrandmother, who became wheelchair bound and latterly bed-bound, said she wanted to end her battle and her life.

Mrs Taylor, 51, said: ‘When I was 11 my mum was diagnosed with MS. I remember as a teenager her always feeling tired. Then came the cane, then the walker and the wheelchair. She hated it.

‘We could see parts of her disappearing. First her arms and legs then her fingers which, as she said, died one by one. She was not living, just existing. It was torture.

‘She was so thin her bones would rub through her body. Her body began to give up. She would say, “I’ve had enough, I can’t do this any more”. She would cry every day and beg us to end her life.

‘But I wasn’t going to kill my mother. I couldn’t.’

Mrs Taylor described her mother’s death as painful and without dignity, adding: ‘We deserve the same rights as pets. Just because you don’t agree with it doesn’t mean you should deny others.’

Professor Celia Kitzinger, a sociologist from the University of york, also gave evidence to the group.

She said more Scots should be made aware of living wills, statements advising medical staff and relatives of treatments patients do not want, such as artificial feeding.

In 2015, MSPs voted to against an Assisted Suicide Bill for Scotland, brought forward by the late independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

The Bill would have let the terminally ill to seek the help of a doctor to end their life.

Earlier this year the crossparty group was set up to continue that debate and increase awareness of end of life choices.

Group convener George Adam, whose wife suffers from MS, said: ‘Hearing about the death of Flora Lorimer was hugely affecting.

‘Everyone deserves the choice to die with dignity and to have a death free of pain.’