Cancer couple end their lives at suicide clinic
A DYING couple have ended their lives together at a controversial euthanasia clinic in Switzerland.
Peter and Penelope Duff, from Bath, died at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich on February 27.
Retired businessmen Mr Duff, 80, was suffering from colon and liver cancer while his 70-year-old wife had been suffering from another rare form of the disease since 1992.
Their family confirmed yesterday that the pair "passed away peacefully together" last month.
The statement continued: "Penny had fought a rare cancer, Gist (gastrointestinal stromal tumour), since 1992 and Peter’s colon cancer had spread to his liver.
“Their decision in no way reflected on the wonderful and humbling care they have received from their consultant, doctors and nurses, for which the family, and they, were so appreciative.”
Mr Duff was secretary-general of the Wine Guild of the United Kingdom from 1984 to 1989. He had been chairman of Alcohol In Moderation since March 2001.
Although there is no suggestion of the couple being helped by anyone else to end their lives, their deaths will reopen the debate on whether voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide for the terminally ill should be allowed in Britain.
This is a desperately sad and unusual case of a couple in a state of distress.
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There has been a series of legal bids in recent years to clarify the law relating to the issue.
Although suicide is no longer a crime in England and Wales, aiding and abetting suicide is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Dignitas was founded in 1998 by Swiss lawyer Ludwig Minelli, who runs it as a non-profit organisation.
Around 100 Britons are said to have been helped to die at the facility.
Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debby Purdy, who said she is ready to end her life if her condition becomes intolerable, lost a Court of Appeal bid last month to clarify the law.
Law lords ruled she was not legally entitled to the kind of specific guidance she was seeking.
But the case of paralysed rugby player Mark James whose family helped him travel to the Dignitas clinic last September signalled that anyone helping a terminally ill person to end their life would not be prosecuted.
The Crown Prosecution Service considered bringing charges under the Suicide Act against his parents Mark and Julie James, from Sinton Green, Worcester, but eventually decided such a prosecution would not be in the public interest.
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British anti-euthanasia campaign group Care Not Killing said the Duffs’ deaths did not make a case for legalising assisted suicide.
A spokesman said: “This is a desperately sad and unusual case of a couple in a state of distress.
"However, hard cases make bad law and the fact remains that, if euthanasia was ever legalised in Britain, vulnerable and seriously ill people would come under pressure to end their lives prematurely.
“The right to die could so easily become a duty to die.
“Legalising euthanasia, which has been rejected by the vast majority of countries around the world, would put us on a very dangerous slippery slope, by which vulnerable people may well come to view themselves as a burden on a cash-strapped NHS and their families and so bring their lives to an end.”
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