Police quizzed Geoffrey Whaley and his wife, Ann, over plan to end his life at Dignitas

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A terminally ill man who is due to die on Thursday morning in Switzerland has said his final weeks have been marred by police inquiries into his wife’s involvement in his plans.

Geoffrey Whaley, 80, from Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire, had arranged plans to end his life at the Dignitas facility on Thursday after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2016.

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In the final weeks of his life, he and his wife Ann, 76, were investigated by Thames Valley police following an anonymous phone call made to social services alerting them of the couple’s intentions to travel to Dignitas.

The Labour peer Lord Falconer, who met the Whaleys last week, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that police had interviewed Mr Whaley once and Mrs Whaley twice under caution.

On Thursday Geoffrey Whaley released an open letter to MPs telling of the anguish he and has family faced after police were tipped off about his plans.

In his letter, Geoffrey writes: “I want to impress upon you the anguish me and my family have experienced, not because of this awful illness , but because of the law against assisted dying in this country.”

“When I eventually got the ‘green light’ from Dignitas, a weight lifted.”

“As I was saying my final goodbyes and preparing myself for the end, the final, biggest bomb dropped and I could no longer keep it together.

“The thought that I might not make it to Switzerland, or that, if I did, Ann might be facing 14 years in jail for helping me, was almost too much to bear.”

Mrs Whaley booked flights to Switzerland because her husband could no longer use his hands. In the UK, helping someone to kill themselves is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Last night, the couple and their two adopted children, Alix and Dominic, shared their final meal together at a hotel in Zurich.

Falconer said: “The idea that this was anything other than his choice was absurd and I thought the law was a total pig. I think pressure will grow and the law will change and if parliament won’t do it, the courts will do it.”

The honorary secretary of the Association for Palliative Medicine, Amy Proffitt, said that a law change could compromise doctors.

Assisted dying is not about “using medicine to prevent distress” but “about using massive doses of barbiturates to end their life prematurely”, said Proffitt.

“This actually changes hippocratic duties of doctors and goes to the heart of medicine.”

A recent poll of GPs conducted by medeConnect found that 55% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that medical bodies should “adopt a position of neutrality on the issue of assisted dying for terminally ill, competent adults”.