Opponents say the case of a woman with crippling arthritis who died at Swiss clinic shows a shifting of the goalposts
A leading campaigner for assisted dying, who opted to die in Switzerland despite having no terminal illness, has reignited debate between supporters and opponents of the right to die.
Nan Maitland, 84, who suffered from agonising arthritis, travelled to Switzerland to end her life on 1 March. She said she didn't want to suffer a "long period of decline, sometimes called 'prolonged dwindling', that so many people unfortunately experience before they die".
Two weeks before her death, Maitland, separated with three children, wrote in a message: "For some time, my life has consisted of more pain than pleasure. I have a great feeling of relief that I will have no further need to struggle through each day.
She added: "I have had a wonderful life, and the great good fortune to die at a time of my choosing."
Maitland was an active member of Friends at the End (Fate), a Glasgow-based campaign group, and was also one of the founders, in 2009, of the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide (Soars), which campaigns for "elderly, mentally competent individuals" who suffer from non-terminal health problems to be given the right to choose.
Dr Michael Irwin, a friend of Maitland's for 15 years and who accompanied her to Switzerland, said she had become increasingly debilitated by her arthritis. "It was slowing her down; she was walking less. She had begun to use a wheelchair, and standing for more than a few minutes was agonising. She did it in style. We stayed in a five-star hotel, and had a lovely meal the night before. She was so composed and dignified. She just said: 'No goodbyes' and went in."
Irwin, who has accompanied four people to Swiss clinics, said he had previously campaigned only for those suffering from terminal illnesses to have the right to assisted suicide, but now believes a wider net should include people such as Maitland.
He said recent guidelines, resulting from a case brought in 2009 by Debbie Purdy over the legal position of companions, was not enough. "A two-tier situation exists where now you can opt for it if you have the money to go abroad," he said.
Care Not Killing, an alliance that campaigns against assisted dying, said the case demonstrated "a shifting of the goalposts" by pro-rights campaigners and would place pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives if they felt they were a burden. "It's a very scary situation that not very severely disabled people could, at the drop of a hat, opt to kill themselves, and [Maitland's case] shows a ramping-up by campaigners," said a spokesman. "Many people have to live with arthritis. It does expose the lie that only people who are terminally ill will be affected by changes in the law."
But supporters said Maitland had come to a rational decision and had previously accompanied someone to Dignitas, one of two Swiss clinics offering doctor-assisted suicide.
Dr Libby Wilson, a campaigner and medical adviser at Fate, said Maitland's decision had been hard for her family. "My fight is about choice and individual responsibility. We had it with contraception and abortion, and it's logical now to say we should have choice in the way we want to die. I do draw the line. I wouldn't encourage it for people with psychological illnesses, for example, acute depression in teenagers, who have to be helped.
"Nan was a very hospitable, sociable person and she loved her friends, but she was so exhausted."
However, Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a legal change on assisted dying in the UK, said it didn't support assisted suicide for people without terminal conditions. A spokeswoman said: "We don't think that you could faithfully have in law assistance for someone who wasn't terminally ill. Then you're making judgements about quality of life, not quality of death." She said their work was to improve the experience of death for those "where it was an inevitability".
• This article was amended on 4 April 2011 to delete inaccurate references to the Dignitas clinic.