Diane Pretty dies in hospice

The mother-of-two, who suffered from motor neurone disease, began experiencing breathing difficulties ten days ago, just three days after she lost her right-to-die challenge at the European Court of Human Rights. Brian Pretty, who was at his 43-year-old wife’s bedside when she died at a hospice on Saturday, said she was now "free at last".

Mrs Pretty, whose illness left her paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair, had always said she wanted her husband to help her commit suicide because she was afraid of the choking and asphyxia often caused by her disease in its final stages.

She had co-operated with a Panorama documentary in the last weeks of her life. An embargo on the reporting of her death was originally imposed until the programme was broadcast at 10pm last night, but it was quickly lifted.

The BBC insisted it had not tried to impose an embargo on reporting Diane Pretty’s death. A BBC spokeswoman said: "Panorama will be broadcast with Brian Pretty’s agreement that it’s shown in her memory."

The BBC had filmed the couple until last Wednesday. The spokeswoman said the programme had been re-edited up to the last minute, which was normal practice.

In a statement last night, Mr Pretty, from Luton in Bedfordshire, said: "Diane had to go through the one thing she had foreseen and was afraid of - and there was nothing I could do to help. On Thursday, she asked me to call the doctor as she was having trouble with her breathing. She had no chest infection and her airways were clear.

"The next day she went into the hospice and started having breathing problems again.

"The doctors and nurses managed to get her stable for a few days but she was still in pain. The staff were wonderful at their job and there was always someone there with her.

"They had trouble getting her comfortable and pain-free until Thursday evening, after which she started to slip into a coma-like state and eventually died. I was with Diane most of the day and was about to come home when I was stopped and told it was time. And then for Diane it was over, free at last."

The director of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, Deborah Annetts, said: "Diane was an extraordinary woman. Everyone who had the privilege of meeting her was struck by her humanity and bravery in the face of unbearable suffering."

A spokeswoman for the organisation, which has supported the couple throughout their legal battle, said Mr Pretty had not assisted in Mrs Pretty’s death and that the couple had always wanted to act "within the law". Suicide is legal in Britain, but helping someone else commit suicide is a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Mrs Pretty, who was diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 1999, fought in the courts for her husband to be guaranteed immunity from prosecution if he helped her die. Her lawyers had argued the government was violating her rights by refusing to rule out charges against her husband.

They argued laws which prohibit aiding or abetting a suicide prevented Mrs Pretty from exercising her right, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.

Mrs Pretty herself said she was trying to retain some control over what remained of her life. "If I am allowed to decide when and how I die, I will feel that I have wrested some autonomy back and kept hold of my dignity," she said last November. "That is how I want my family to remember me - as someone who respected the law and asked in turn that the law respected my rights."

After her case was defeated in Britain, she went to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Two weeks ago, a panel of European judges rejected her plea.

Dr Ryszard Bietzk, the head of medical services at the Pasque Hospice, Luton, where Mrs Pretty was cared for, said her death was "perfectly normal, natural and peaceful".

He added: "There was no reason for police to be involved or notified. Diane was admitted to the hospice last Friday for a pre-arranged admission. Over recent weeks her condition had deteriorated and she continued to deteriorate following her admission until she died peacefully yesterday afternoon."