Healthy Mum, 56, Has Ended Her Life At Swiss Clinic Today As Statement Is Issued

Yesterday, we wrote about 56-year-old Wendy Duffy, who had travelled from Britain to Swiss suicide clinic Pegasos because she said she was too heartbroken to live without her only son.

Today, she ended her life as scheduled, wearing her son’s t-shirt which still ‘smells like him’.

Ruedi Habegger, Pegasos founder, said on Friday: ‘I can confirm that Wendy Duffy, at her own request, was assisted to die on April 24 and that the procedure was completed without incident and in full compliance with her wishes. 

‘I can also confirm that neither we nor any of the professional staff assessing her mental capacity had any doubt as to her intention, understanding and independence of both thought and action. In historical terms at English law, hers was a case of “sane suicide”.’

Wendy’s son Marcus Duffy, 23, died four years ago after choking on a cherry tomato while asleep on the sofa at their home in the West Midlands.

Wendy, a former care worker, had made Marcus a sandwich, which included halved cherry tomatoes, while he was hungover on the sofa.

A piece of one of those cherry tomatoes became lodged in his windpipe while he was dozing and he died.

Wendy tried to take her own life following her son’s tragic death, but survived. She told doctors the grief has become unbearable and no amount of therapy or medication can fix it.

She was approved for assisted dying at Pegasos in Basel and paid £10,000 fee to book her place.

As per guidelines, patients must show they are mentally competent and have not been pushed toward the decision by anyone else.

Pegasos founder Ruedi Habegger confirmed earlier this week: ‘Wendy is very decided. I saw her at her hotel today, I had a long talk with her and with the psychiatrist that is going to see her a second time before the VAD [voluntary assisted death].

‘He is very confident that we are doing the right thing letting her go, that we should not stand in her way.

‘She is absolutely not in a depressive state. I’m very experienced in this field. There are no worries with Wendy, none at all.’

There’s all kinds of debate around the issue, but ultimately if you’ve never lost yourchild, I don’t think it’s possible to fully comprehend how Wendy was feeling. Especially given Marcus was her only child, and the unimaginably improbable tragic circumstances under which he died, for which she may have blamed herself, at least to some degree.

It’s not like this was a rushed decision, either. She had thought about assisted dying for a year before deciding to go through with it. In the end, she figured it was her only escape from the heartbreak.

Fair enough, really. RIP Wendy Duffy.

For the distraught family whose son was euthanised because he suffered from ‘seasonal depression’, click HERE.