After finishing her last glass of champagne, and listening to her favourite song, a former children’s writer died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.
Mother-of-one Dawn Voice-Cooper, 76, released a fatal dose of barbiturates into her bloodstream while surrounded by her friends at the Lifecircle clinic in Basel.
Ms Voice-Cooper, a sufferer of severe arthritis, brain bleeds, epilepsy, and other health issues, spent many years advocating for assisted death to be legalized in the UK.
Mirror: She said her life was a ‘endless, often hard, and sometimes painful, daily management a number of incurable issues’.
Before she fell into deep sleep and died, Ms Voice-Cooper told her friends and family at her bedside, ‘thank you’.
The former mental worker, who lived alone in Sevenoaks in Kent, stated that people who said she looked fine didn’t really understand the complexities of her daily living.
Mother-of-one Dawn Voice Cooper (pictured), 76, accidentally released fatal amounts of barbiturates while being surrounded by her friends from the Lifecircle clinic.
Ms Voice Cooper’s death coincides with World Right to Die Day campaigners.
Assisting in suicide is currently a crime that can land you up to 14 years in prison in England and Wales, or Northern Ireland.
Ms Voice-Cooper stated that she had to die young because she was still able to travel and not continue to live a full life.
Her friend Alex Pandolfo, who has early onset Alzheimer’s and will also die at Lifecircle before he deteriorates, will now continue her battle to ask for an ‘evidenced based parliamentary inquiry into humane voluntary assisted dying in the UK’.
A proposed assisted dying law, brought by Baroness Meacher, will only be available to those with less six months of life.
It was passed in the Lords’ second reading last week, allowing it to move on to the Committee stage for only the seventh time in seven years.
Ms Voice Cooper said that the proposals were too restrictive. She wants an evidence-based Parliamentary inquiry on assisted dying. This would allow for the creation of a Canadian-style model where people with severe and irremediable conditions can apply to die.
Ms Voice-Cooper (pictured), a woman who suffered from severe arthritis, brain bleeds, epilepsy, and other health issues, spent years advocating for assisted death to be legalized in the UK.
Critics of assisted death fear that legalization could force the elderly and disabled to end their lives instead of becoming a burden.
Ms Voice-Cooper wanted to show that she was capable of demonstrating the safeguards in place to prevent abuse of the system. This included a requirement she submit her medical history, give reasons for her death, and prove her mental competency.
She was first examined by two different doctors in Switzerland, and then she was taken to the Lifecircle clinic where two people end up their lives every week.
Ms Voice Cooper applied for assisted death two years back, after having considered her options in 2017, when she began to experience a decline in her quality life.
Patients at Dignitas are subject to a lethal cocktail. Lifecircle staff, however, set up an IV drip system that the recipients can control themselves.
Ms Voice Cooper spent her final moments with her friends and fellow campaigners Miranda Tuckett. Her bed was placed in front a window that allowed her to see out at the trees.
Dr Erika Preisig, president of Lifecircle, asked Ms Voice-Cooper four last questions on camera: What’s your name, what’s your date of birth and can you tell us why you came to this place? And do you know what’s coming if you open this profusion.
Ms Voice-Cooper was listening to Nick Drake’s Day is Done as she allowed IV drugs to enter her bloodstream.
After a police investigation, which is done after every assisted death in the clinic has been completed, her body will then be cremated and her ashes scattered.
Up to one Briton a week is believed to travel to Switzerland to end their life, with the journey usually costing around £10,000. Any family members who assist are at risk in the UK.