Haunted by the death of her partner, a terminally ill woman in the UK pleads for assisted dying

LONDON. Jenny Carruthers watched her partner die in agony from cancer that had spread to his bones. She has now been diagnosed with the same condition and is desperate for Britain to change the law to allow assisted dying and give her a more peaceful death.

“I watched my partner die in uncontrollable agony, and it looks like the same fate awaits me. We need this,” Carruthers, 56, said, recalling her partner “screaming in bed” in his final days.

“Now I am terminally ill. I have spread to my bones, and I have a pretty good idea of ​​what might happen. It’s very scary,” said Carruthers, from the city of Bath in southwest England.

British lawmakers were due to vote later on Friday on whether to allow assisted dying for terminally ill adults, which could set in motion a law change and one of the biggest social reforms in a generation.

Carruthers, a former public health aide, was one of hundreds of people who gathered outside parliament on Friday, hoping to convince politicians that those suffering should be given the right to choose to die.

Devastated by her partner’s ordeal and fearful of the impact a repeat would have on her children, Carruthers said legalizing assisted dying would allow her to live out her final days without fear, and it should be one of the proposals for those who are terminally ill.

She said her children fully support her wishes and believes the safeguards in the bill, which require the approval of two doctors and a judge, will avoid pressure on anyone to end their life early – as critics of the bill fear.

As she waited nervously in Parliament Square as lawmakers debated an issue that could affect how much pain she might suffer in the future, Carruthers made one last plea for compassion.

“I’m asking them to really think about giving us some dignity,” she said. Reuters