A critically ill British woman who won a landmark legal ruling this week to travel abroad for an assisted suicide has died at a Swiss clinic, the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES) said today.
A spokesman for the society said the Dignitas clinic had confirmed to Zurich police that the 66-year-old lady known only as "Mrs Z" had died.
She had been suffering from a degenerative brain disease. Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland have each passed various laws allowing assisted euthanasia, but Britons risk up to 14 years in jail for helping a patient to die, a penalty that is among the harshest in Europe.
On Tuesday, a judge at London's High Court said he would not prevent Mrs Z's husband from taking his wife abroad to end her life. He said, however, the husband could face questioning from police on his return.
"We wish to extend our heartfelt sympathy to Mr Z on his sad loss," a spokesman for VES said on Saturday. "The law has imposed this tragic journey upon him as it has upon others and it is to Britain's shame that more will follow. Mrs Z's dying wishes should have been able to be met within this country."
Tuesday's case had been brought to court by a local council that provided care for Mrs Z. The debate over assisted suicide has divided religious groups and the medical community. A poll published by VES in September showed 82 percent of Britons would support a change in the euthanasia law.