Mother ends life at Swiss clinic four years after son’s death

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.

The case comes as assisted dying will not become law in England and Wales after proposed legislation, branded “hopelessly flawed” by opponents, ran out of time.

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.

“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’.”

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 had paid Pegasos £10,000 and her siblings – including four sisters and two brothers – knew that she had applied to the clinic.

She said: “I will call them when I get to Switzerland. It will be a hard call where I’ll say goodbye and thank them. But they will get it. They know.

“My life, my choice. I wish this was available in the UK, then I wouldn’t have to go to Switzerland at all.”

Pegasos Swiss Association, a nonprofit organisation, was founded by Habegger, a right-to-die activist, in 2019.

The terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, which had been making its way through parliament for the past 18 months, fell on Friday.

While the bill had successfully passed two votes in the House of Commons, albeit with a narrower majority on the second occasion, it did not reach a vote in the Lords.

The bill had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.

More than 1,200 amendments to the bill had been suggested in the Lords, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers.

In 2024, a 29-year-old Dutch woman was granted her request for assisted dying on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering.