Dignified? It was like an execution chamber: Daughter who took her mother to die at Dignitas

UK Daily Mail ^ | 6/18/11 | Helen Weathers

[wagglebee]

Karen Royle’s memories of the last precious hours with her cherished mother Rona are far from the serene, comforting images that she had hoped for.

Before arriving in Zurich, Karen, 51, had envisaged a pretty Swiss chalet, with perhaps a view of the Alps — ‘just like the pictures in the book Heidi, which I’d loved as a child’.

But the Dignitas ‘apartment’ at No  84 Gertrudestrasse, where 74-year-old Rona chose to end her life rather than succumb further to the ravages of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), bore no comparison to the picture-postcard tranquility her family had imagined.

The image Karen and her partner David Sweetman cannot erase from their minds is of a ‘blue tin shed’ on a barren industrial estate, with no views, just a scrubby patch of garden littered with cigarette butts.

Inside, the prefabricated structure was equally spartan, with no decorations apart from two roses, an angel-shaped candle and a silver-winged candle holder that the Royles, at Rona’s request, had brought with them.

‘That vision of what was little more than a blue tin shed will stay with me for the rest of my life,’ says David, a decorator.

‘It reminded me of a gas chamber. I felt like I was taking Rona to her execution.

‘When the taxi turned into that industrial estate, we were so horrified I just wanted to turn straight round and drive away. The only thing that stopped us was Rona’s determination to go through with it. I kept asking her: “Rona, are you sure about this?” But she never wavered. To this day, though, I can’t help but feel guilty for taking her there.’

[sayuncledave]

Eventually, it’ll be more like Logan’s Run. The death machine will be a source of entertainment. Probably televised. Still criminal.

[NonValueAdded]

“Hey! Wait a minute, this is an abattoir!”

[Impy]

Idiots got taken.

I feel bad for the old lady.

[Nowhere Man]

Sheesh. 14 years ago, when I started nursing, people would put the garage door down with the car running, or drink a bottle of Drano. I didn’t & still don’t agree with their “choice” to committ suicide but I have to give them credit for not being so selfish as to drag another person into it.

What the hell has happened to us?? Satan must have one big-ass grin over this. Sick. Just sick.

If someone is going to commit suicide and they are heck bent on doing it, there is little you can do to stop them other than confinement and tying them to a chair. Still, at least, as you put it, they did make that decision and carried it out on their own. I know this is in another country, but if it was up to me, I'd send in the 101st Screaming Eagles and shut these places down.

[wagglebee]

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