Widow's tearful plea for assisted dying law to bypass referendum

A WOMAN whose terminally ill husband endured a "horrible" death says the question of whether to introduce assisted dying should not be put to a referendum.

- Hanna Geissler

Sue Biggerstaff yesterday made a tearful intervention during a parliamentary debate in the Isle of Man, where an Assisted Dying Bill is progressing.

If approved, the island could become the first part of the British Isles to legalise assisted dying. Members of the House of Keys yesterday voted 12 to 11 to reject the proposal of a referendum.

Ms It came after Biggerstaff spoke movingly about her husband Simon, who became paralysed from the neck down within two months of being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

She said he suffered a "total loss of dignity", and added: "He couldn't speak properly, couldn't do anything.

There were so many horrible, horrible things happening to him. It was just awful.