British woman, 57, with terminal breast cancer, who will be euthanized in New Zealand next week to avoid ‘uncertain and painful death’, urges Britain to change assisted dying laws

A British woman due to be euthanized in New Zealand next week has urged Britain 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 about how their lives can end.

“Look at what New Zealand has done, and do better,” she said of her message to British politicians. The guard. ‘There is a lot of attention for the right to life, but people should have the right to a peaceful, gentle death.’

Ms Hickman has dual British and New Zealand citizenship. She chose to die on May 22 under New Zealand legislation that allows competent adults to choose assisted death if they both have a terminal illness and have six months to live.

They must also be in “unbearable suffering” that cannot be alleviated and in an “advanced state of irreversible deterioration of their physical capabilities.”

Linda Clarke – Ms Hickman’s sister who lives in Britain – echoed the call to the British government. “If Tracy was still in Britain, I would have to watch her suffer a horrible death,” she told the British newspaper.

New Zealand’s assisted dying law came into force in 2021 during Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s premiership, after two-thirds of voters backed it in a national referendum a year earlier.

‘The Assisted Dying Service allows a person with a terminal illness to request medication to end his or her 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 – dying in a warm and comforting way.’

Unlike some countries in Europe, the law does not allow assisted death in the case of mental illness. Disability or old age as grounds for assisted death are also expressly excluded by the legislation.

Ms Hickman – an accountant and long-distance runner who has lived in New Zealand for 20 years – told the Guardian she is “at peace” with her decision.

‘The closer it gets, the more peaceful I feel. But I am deeply sorry for hurting my family and friends, even if they understand. The alternative is to live for a few more months but suffer an uncertain and painful death,” she said.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2019 after a routine mammogram, despite being fit, vegetarian and not drinking.

The diagnosis was followed by surgery and chemotherapy. She said she suffered from side effects, such as hearing loss and “chemo brain,” but the cancer went away.

This allowed her to return to work and run marathons.

However, in February 2023, the cancer returned and spread, with further treatments leading to more side effects, including severe pain.

Mrs Hickman told the newspaper she did not qualify for assisted death at this stage as doctors believed she had more than six months to live.

She said she even contemplated suicide by refusing to eat or drink.

Her prognosis changed in March this year when doctors discovered dozens of tumors in her brain and advised she probably only had three months to live.

This, she said, was a “huge shock” and led to her taking morphine.

Following her diagnosis, Ms Hickman applied for assisted death through the simple New Zealand process, which involves an assessment by two doctors.

She told The Guardian that she has since spent her time saying goodbye to her loved ones and doing a bit of “life administration.”

On the day of her death, she will gather with a small group of people, including her partner and sister, on a remote beach.

When she is ready, a medical team will administer medication. She will lose consciousness in a few minutes while listening to the sound of the waves.

She told The Guardian that she hopes that by sharing her story she will help raise awareness and spark 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 disease in 2020. She told the newspaper that her cancer might 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 as Tracy. “I want the right to choose,” she said.

The issue of assisted death 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 both suffering from mental health issues – announced they would undergo assisted deaths.

Jolanda Fun and Zoraya ter Beek both said that life had become unbearable due to their mental health problems, and had chosen to end their lives through legal routes in the Netherlands.

Figures show that 138 people with mental health problems were euthanized in 2023, which amounts to 1.5 percent of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands that year.

In Britain, meanwhile, Dame Esther Rantzen led a chorus of dismay after a report by MPs on assisted dying in February produced no clear findings or proposals.

The inquiry, carried out by the Health and Social Care Committee, was designed to ‘provide a basis for discussion’ about whether the law should be changed.

But the committee stopped short of calling for a debate in the House of Commons, which would allow MPs to air their disagreements on existing legislation before voting.

Instead, it was recommended that the government consider how to respond if steps are taken to enshrine assisted dying into law in parts of Britain.

Dame Esther, who has stage four lung cancer and has registered for the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland, called the report ‘very disappointing’.

She said of the report in February: ‘Many of us feel it is time for this country to catch up with best practice abroad and the only way to achieve that is a good debate in Parliament with a free vote at the end of it .

‘I am deeply disappointed that this report – which many of us have been waiting for – does not make that recommendation.

“I’m afraid it was a missed opportunity in many ways.”

Euthanasia, or medically assisted death, is currently illegal in both Britain and the wider British Isles, and currently any doctor or person who performs euthanasia can be prosecuted for manslaughter or murder.

Even helping a terminally ill person to commit suicide, called assisted suicide, is a criminal offense in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Although there is no specific law on assisted suicide in Scotland, assisting someone to end their own life can lead to a prosecution for wrongful death in circumstances where a court determines that a person’s death was not entirely voluntary.