Elderly Woman Granted Assisted Suicide after Becoming Disillusioned with Life

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Apr 07, 2014

Elderly Woman Granted Assisted Suicide after Becoming Disillusioned with Life

An elderly British woman was approved for a physician-assisted suicide in Switzerland, though she was not terminally ill or disabled. The 89-year-old, known only as Anne, had become disillusioned with life, and felt unable to continue living in a modern world.

The former art teacher and electrician with the Royal Navy reported being tired of “swimming against the current.” She said, “They say adapt or die. At my age, I feel that I can’t adapt, because the new age is not an age that I grew up to understand. I see everything as cutting corners. All the old-fashioned ways of doing things have gone.”  

Anne turned to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland for the procedure, while England was in the midst of debates about a physician-assisted suicide law being introduced in the country.

Anne had never been married or had children. A niece accompanied her on the trip to Switzerland, where the pair went sightseeing before Anne was issued a fatal dose of barbiturates reported The Blaze.

Founder of the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide Michael Irwin assisted Anne with the completion of her Dignitas application. He said, “If you are mentally competent you can rationalize whether or not you want to end your life, after you take a look around and decide you don’t like what you see.”



Elderly Woman Granted Assisted Suicide after Becoming Disillusioned with Life