British couple left heartbreaking note before ending their lives with assisted dying
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing
A couple left behind a note to their loved ones telling them they'd taken their own lives through assisted dying and that by the time they would be reading it, their deaths would already have occurred.
Ruth Posner and her husband, Michael, both in their 90s, are believed to have died in the Pegasos clinic in Basel, Switzerland, last weekend.
Neither of them was thought to be terminally ill, and in a note left behind to their loved ones, they said they were 'not living but existing' due to the decline in their senses through old age.
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They said that 'no care would improve' their situation and thus they had decided to seek out assisted dying.
The couple had first met at a dance hall in London, with Ruth having previously escaped a ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, and arrived in the UK when she was a teenager.
Most of her family had died in a concentration camp during the Second World War.
She met her future husband Michael, a chemist from Belfast, and they were married for almost 75 years before they sought assisted dying and sent an email which would only be received after they had died.
In their note, the couple said: "When you receive this email we will have ‘shuffled off this mortal coil’.
"The decision was mutual and without any outside pressure. We had lived a long life and together for almost 75 years. There came a point when failing senses of sight and hearing and lack of energy was not living but existing, that no care would improve.
"We had an interesting and varied life and except for the sorrow of losing Jeremy, our son. We enjoyed our time together, we tried not to regret the past, live in the present and not to expect too much from the future. Much love Ruth and Mike."
Sonja Linden, a friend of the couple, told PA that Ruth had been 'the most vibrant, amazing woman' and Michael had been a 'remarkable, clever, intellectual man'.
However, she also said that when she had visited her friends in the past year Ruth had felt that 'we’ve had enough, we’re ready to go, we don’t want to just exist. And that’s what we’re doing, we’re just existing at the moment'.
Assisted dying in the UK is an ongoing issue as MPs have voted in favour of a bill to introduce it under certain circumstances in England and Wales.
Others who have chosen to seek an end to their life include a woman who recorded a goodbye message before she sought to end her life at the age of 65, and a terminally ill man who allowed the BBC to film his final moments.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Joe Harker