British woman, 57, with terminal breast cancer who is set to be euthanized in New Zealand next week to avoid 'uncertain and painful death' urges UK to change its laws on assisted dying
- Tracy Hickman, 57, who has terminal cancer, has been granted an assisted death in New Zealand. She will die surrounded by loved ones on May 22
A British woman who is set to be euthanized in New Zealand next week has urged the UK to change its own assisted dying laws.
Tracy Hickman, 57, who has terminal cancer, said seriously ill people like her in Britain should be given choices over how their life can end.
'Look at what New Zealand has done, and do it even better,' she said of her message to UK politicians, speaking to The Guardian. 'There is a lot of focus on the right to life, but people should have the right to a peaceful, gentle death.'
Ms Hickman has dual British and New Zealand nationality. She has chosen to die on May 22 under New Zealand laws that allow competent adults to choose an assisted death if they have both a terminal illness and six months to live.
They must also be in 'unbearable suffering' that cannot be relieved and in an 'advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability'.
Linda Clarke - Ms Hickman's sister who lives in the UK - echoed the call to the UK government. If Tracy was still in the UK, I'd have to watch her go through a horrific death,' she told the British newspaper.
![Tracy Hickman (pictured left), 57, who has terminal cancer , said seriously ill people like her in Britain should be given choices about how their life should end](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/13/10/84791303-13411501-image-a-1_1715592953719.jpg)
Tracy Hickman (pictured left), 57, who has terminal cancer , said seriously ill people like her in Britain should be given choices about how their life should end
New Zealand's assisted dying law came into effect in 2021 during the premiership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, after two-thirds of voters supported it in a national referendum a year earlier.
'The Assisted Dying Service allows a person with a terminal illness to request medication to end their life. The person must meet strict criteria and follow the process set out in a law called the End of Life Choice Act 2019 (the Act),' the country's ministry of health says on its website.
The website adds: 'The [...] Māori translation for assisted dying is mate whakaahuru – to die in a warm and comforting manner.'
Unlike in some countries in Europe, the law does not allow for assisted deaths in the case of mental illness. Disability or advanced age as grounds for an assisted death are also specifically ruled out under the legislation.
Ms Hickman - an accountant and long distance runner who has lived in New Zealand for 20 years - told the Guardian that she feels 'at peace' with her decision.
'The closer it gets, the more peaceful I feel. But I'm so sorry for causing distress to my family and friends, although they understand. The alternative is to live for another couple of months or so but have an uncertain and painful death,' she said.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2019 after a routine mammogram, despite being fit, a vegetarian, and not drinking.
The diagnosis was followed by surgery and chemotherapy. She said she suffered side-effects, such as hearing loss and 'chemo brain', but the cancer receded.
This allowed her to return to work and run marathons.
However, by February 2023, the cancer returned and spread, while further treatments led to more side effects, including serious pain.
Ms Hickman told the newspaper that at this stage, she was not eligible for an assisted death as doctors believed she had more than six months to live.
She said she even considered suicide by refusing to eat or drink.
Her prognosis changed in March this year when doctors discovered dozens of tumours in her brain and advised she probably only had three months to live.
This, she said, was a 'huge shock' and has led to her taking morphine.
Following her diagnosis, Ms Hickman applied for an assisted death through New Zealand's simple process that includes an assessment from two doctors.
She told The Guardian that since then, she has spent her time saying goodbye to her loved ones and doing a bit of 'life admin'.
On the day of her death, she will gather with a small group of people including her partner and sister on a secluded beach.
When she is ready, a medical team will administer drugs. She will lose consciousness within a few minutes while listening to the sound of the waves.
She told The Guardian that she hopes by sharing her story, she will help raise awareness and prompt more discussions about a person's right to die.
Her sister, Linda Clarke, was also diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and later with Parkinson's in 2020. She told the newspaper that her cancer could come back.
'My cancer could come back. I don't know what my future is. I live in the UK, but I want the same choices that Tracy has. I want the right to choose,' she said.
![Ms Hickman has dual British and New Zealand nationality. She has chosen to die on May 22 under New Zealand laws that allow competent adults to choose an assisted death if they have both a terminal illness and six months to live](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/13/10/84791301-13411501-image-a-2_1715592961959.jpg)
Ms Hickman has dual British and New Zealand nationality. She has chosen to die on May 22 under New Zealand laws that allow competent adults to choose an assisted death if they have both a terminal illness and six months to live
The issue of assisted dying is never far from the news. In recent months, it has been put in the spotlight by a series of high profile cases in The Netherlands.
There, two physically healthy young women - but who both suffer from mental health issues - announced that they would be going through with assisted deaths.
Jolanda Fun and Zoraya ter Beek both said life had become unbearable due to their mental health struggles, and had chosen to end their lives through legal routes in The Netherlands.
Figures show that 138 people suffering with mental health issues were euthanized in 2023 - making up 1.5 percent of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands that year.
In the UK, meanwhile, Dame Esther Rantzen led a chorus of dismay after a report by MPs into assisted dying failed to deliver any clear-cut findings or proposals in February.
The inquiry, carried out by the Health and Social Care Committee, was set up to provide 'a basis for discussion' into whether the law should be changed.
But the committee stopped short of calling for a House of Commons debate, which would have allowed MPs to thrash out their differences on existing legislation before holding a vote.
It instead recommended that the Government should consider how to respond if moves are made to bring assisted dying into law in parts of the UK.
Dame Esther, who has stage four lung cancer and has signed up for the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland, branded the report 'profoundly disappointing'.
She said of the report in February: 'Many of us feel it is time this country caught up with the best practices abroad and the only way to achieve that is for a proper debate in Parliament with a free vote at the end of it.
'I am profoundly disappointed that this report - which many of us have been waiting for - does not come up with that recommendation.
'I am afraid in many ways it was a wasted opportunity.'
Euthanasia, or medically assisted death, is currently illegal in both the UK and the wider British Isles, and currently any medic or person who performs euthanasia can face prosecution for manslaughter or murder.
Even helping a terminally ill person take their own life, called assisted suicide, is an offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
While no specific law on assisted suicide exists in Scotland, helping someone end their own life could lead to a prosecution for culpable homicide in circumstances where a court determines a person's death was not entirely voluntary.