Healthy retired British nurse dies by assisted suicide in Switzerland.

Alex Schadenberg

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Switzerland suicide juggernaut rolls on, now claiming the life of a healthy retired nurse from the UK. Gill Pharoah, who was a supporter of euthanasia, told the media that she went to the Swiss suicide clinic to avoid old age.

The Care Not Killing Alliance called the suicide death:

Deeply troubling. 

It sends out a chilling message about how society values and looks after elderly people in the UK. 

It seeks the introduction of death on demand for those who fear becoming a burden, even if they are otherwise fit and healthy. This is an abhorrent development, but it reveals a truth that some who argue for a change in the law really believe there should be no safeguards or restrictions on assisted killing.

Pietro D'Amico died by
assisted suicide after
a wrong diagnosis

Cases, such as this one, appear to be promoted by the media to pressure the British government to legalize assisted suicide.

Previous Britons to die at a Swiss suicide clinic include a double assisted suicide of elderly cousins who feared living alone and an 83 year-old man with dementia, These cases are often connected to a suicide lobby leader who argues for the acceptance of assisted suicide of people who are not terminally ill.

Last year, a healthy Italian woman died at a Swiss suicide clinic because she was unhappy about how she looked. In April 2013, an Italian man died at a Swiss suicide clinic after receiving a wrong medical diagnosis.

This case should result in less support for assisted suicide when the House of Commons in Britain debates an assisted suicide bill this fall. 

The disability rights group, Not Dead Yet - UK recently held a rally opposing the Marris assisted suicide bill.