A grieving mother has ended her life at a clinic in Switzerland four years after the death of her only child. Wendy Duffy, 56, a physically healthy woman, died at the Pegasos clinic in Basel after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, Marcus. The former care worker, from the West Midlands, had previously attempted to take her own life.
Ruedi Habegger, the founder of Pegasos, described Duffy's death as a 'sane suicide'. He told the Daily Mail: 'I can confirm that Wendy Duffy, at her own request, was assisted to die on 24 April and that the procedure was completed without incident and in full compliance with her wishes.' He added that there was no doubt as to her intention, understanding and independence of thought and action.
Duffy's son died after choking on a sandwich that became lodged in his windpipe, starving his brain of oxygen. She had told the Daily Mail that she paid Pegasos £10,000 and that her siblings knew she had applied to the clinic. She said: 'My life, my choice. I wish this was available in the UK, then I wouldn't have to go to Switzerland at all.'
The case comes as assisted dying legislation in England and Wales, branded 'hopelessly flawed' by opponents, ran out of time to be passed by parliament. The terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, which had been making its way through parliament for 18 months, fell on Friday. The bill had proposed allowing adults with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel. Duffy's case would likely not have met these conditions.
In 2024, a 29-year-old Dutch woman was granted her request for assisted dying on grounds of unbearable mental suffering. Zoraya ter Beek received final approval after a three-and-a-half-year process under a law passed in the Netherlands in 2002.
