Dignity in Dying
The Times reports on the case of Jeffrey Spector who travelled to Switzerland to end his life at a Dignitas clinic because of his fear of a long, slow death as the result of an inoperable tumour on his spine.
Now I have no idea whether I would choose the same path as Jeffrey who enjoyed clearly the support of a loving family, but I do think it is disgraceful that he had to travel all the way to Switzerland to fulfil his wishes.
While I'm sure his family were heartbroken they all supported him to the end and this is the kind of case which highlights why the law has to change.
Final family meal of father, 54, on his way to Dignitas
Jeffrey Spector, right, at his last meal, 16 hours before he took his life ý© WARREN SMITH 2015
By Nadeem Badshah -
An advertising executive had his photograph taken with his smiling family as they sat down to a final meal before he died at a euthanasia clinic.
Jeffrey Spector, 54, travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland with his wife and three daughters, fearing that he would be paralysed from the neck down by an inoperable tumour on his spine.
Mr Spector, the director of several advertising and internet companies, said he had gone against the wishes of his wife, Elaine, 53, and Courtney, 21, Keleigh, 19, and Camryn, 15, by taking the fatal dose of barbiturates. His wife was by his side.
In the hours before his death last week Mr Spector, from Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, said: “I am not scared. But never judge someone until you have worn their shoes. I know I am going too early. My family disagree but I believe this is in their best interests.”
He secretly joined the assisted suicide organisation five years ago, a decision he revealed to his family when his condition worsened. Mr Spector’s body was expected to be brought back to Britain yesterday for his funeral.
For the last week of his life he was followed by a film crew who will produce a tribute to him for his widow and their children, the youngest of whom is taking her GCSEs. His family joined him for the meal in Zurich and flew home after his death was confirmed.
In a candid interview from Dignitas, Mr Spector said that he developed the illness in 2008 and decided to end his life as his condition deteriorated.
“Friends and most of all my family have urged me not to go through with it. Had I [only] lost the use of my legs I would have been distraught but I could cope.
“The condition got worse and I made my decision to go to Dignitas. I know I am going too early but I had consistent thoughts without peer pressure. It had to be a settled decision by a sound mind. I was going downhill and was finding it hard to use my hands.”
Mr Spector added: “Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK with up to 14 years’ jail so it had to be Switzerland. I felt the illness had crossed the red line and I was getting worse. Rather than go late I am jumping the gun.”
A close family friend, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Mr Spector did not want to become a burden on his family. “Jeffrey was not for changing his mind. From the outside he appeared as normal, chatty, driving his car, but inside he knew he was getting worse. People have tried to talk him out of this, his own family have begged him. But if Jeffrey Spector could not be the Jeffrey Spector we all knew, because of this tumour, this was his way out.”
A study in 2014 by Zurich University found that one in five people who chose an assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic was British, with 126 ending their life at the clinic between 2008 and 2012 compared with 268 Germans. It is believed to cost up to £7,000 to end a person’s life at Dignitas, which opened in 1998.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide remain illegal in the UK despite a series of cases from terminally ill patients seeking to challenge the legislation.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, a former lord chancellor, said last month that he would try to revive an assisted dying bill after the general election that would provide “competent” adults who have less than six months to live with assistance to end their own life.
