‘My friends face prison if they help me end my life’
AN MS sufferer is calling for assisted suicide to be legalised in the UK – so friends who help her aren’t arrested.
Anne Jappie, 63, says she is no longer able to get to Dignitas in Switzerland on her own and can’t afford the £15,000 fees.
But she refuses to ask friends for help – because it would put them in danger of going to prison.
In England and Wales, the 1961 Suicide Act makes it an offence to encourage or assist someone to take their own life. Separate laws in Scotland and Northern Ireland prevent dying people asking for medical help to die.
Anne, from Cheltenham, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1982 and says she now lives in “great discomfort”.
A former journalist, she said: “It’s a massive logistical exercise to get to Geneva. You’re looking at £15,000 for the whole process. I have got some friends who said they would help. [But] it’s five trips. They would face the possibility of prosecution. I cannot put my friends in that position.”
Anne was first diagnosed with MS when she was a student.
Now, approaching 64, she is considering ending her own life early because of the discomfort she experiences. But the costs of doing so – by going to Dignitas – are not cheap and Anne says she would be a lot “calmer” if she had the option to end her life legally here.
She worked as a journalist and for a public relations company full time until she got hit by relapses and went on sick leave for six months in 2007. In 2008, she medically retired. Anne described living with the disease as akin to having “your whole central nervous system screaming at you”.
She said: “It’s extremely difficult to leave the house. I can get from the front door to the taxi with the trolley walker. Anything further than that I have to go in the wheelchair.
“To go to the loo is a procedure that requires medical kit. I can manage but it’s bloody difficult.”
Anne said she is not considering an imminent trip to Dignitas, but would be “a lot calmer” if she knew that she would not have to deal with the “precarity” for “any longer”.
From an early age, she has believed that the “quality” of later life outweighs its “quantity”. As a teenager, she watched as a distant relative – who she describes as an “honorary grandmother” – suffered with cancer.
“She did not want to be a burden to anyone”, Anne said.
“I was having to help her get to the loo. One of those trips she said, ‘help me to die’. It turned out she was [ill] with cancer. That was the point at which I joined Exit, now Dignity in Dying. That had such a dramatic impact.”
In 2015, her mother suffered a
I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of the manner of departure ANNE JAPPIE
“monumental” stroke. Anne’s mother’s doctors decided they wanted her to be tube fed.
Anne said: “I said no, absolutely not. She was in such pain. I could hear her crying. My mother was 93 when she died. [After] further deterioration, I had to watch her. She had to endure it and so did I.”
The combined experiences have shaped Anne’s attitude now. She’s signed a “respect document” – which asks that doctors “do not resuscitate” her and do not attempt a life-extending procedure.
“It’s a crazy situation”, she said. “I don’t have children. I don’t have any caring responsibilities. There is nobody pressuring me. I am of sound mind. I’m knackered as it is. It takes two hours to go to the loo. It’s the most humiliating thing.
“If anyone comes to the house I have to hide the stuff away. It’s not something you ever imagined you’d have to do. There are people who have gone to Dignitas sooner than they would want because they know that whatever their condition, if they leave it too long they would not be able to travel.
“My wish is to not have strangers cleaning me up after going to the loo. I just don’t want to do it.
“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of the manner of departure.”