There is likely to have been rather more complexity to Wendy Duffy’s case than was reported in the British newspapers this week. According to the Daily Mail, she has been accepted for a VAD (Voluntary Assisted Death) by Pegasos because she is suffering terribly from the loss of her son four years ago. At 56, she is relatively young to receive a VAD and the precise date of her death has not yet been arranged.
Quite rightly, organisations such as Pegasos never discuss the details of individual cases. Nonetheless, a number of questions do arise. First, has there been a psychiatrist’s report ? At least one such report is required under Swiss Law and is usually a pre-requisite of any green light to proceed. Its purpose is to demonstrate that the client is “of sound mind”. All the AVD providers prefer such a report to be provided in the client’s own country – although in practice, Pegasos, Athanasios and Phoenix Care are known to show some flexibility in their interpretation of that.
Second, are there any other reasons why a VAD might have been agreed ? Bereavement alone is not usually an acceptable reason. Someone in their fifties would normally have such a request turned down, unless there were accompanying “co-morbidities” to be handled. In Wendy Duffy’s case, she has already spent two weeks on a ventilator following an unsuccessful suicide attempt, so her physical health is likely to have been permanently impaired in some way.
Third, the news of her case has been announced at the same time as it became obvious that the Assisted Dying Bill was going to fail. This could have been a coincidence, of course, but the timing seems more than coincidental, to say the least. The failed Bill, of course, would have done nothing to help Wendy Duffy because she has not been diagnosed with less than six months to live.
