CAMPAIGNER says bill would have prevented prosecution
Margo hits at mother’s suicide-aid trial ordeal
By Morag Lindsay and Gillian Bell
Published: 26/01/2010
A mother cleared of trying to murder her desperately ill daughter could have been spared a court ordeal if a law on assisted suicide had been in place, Margo MacDonald claimed last night.
The Independent MSP said her End of Life Assistance Bill published in the Scottish Parliament last week was aimed at preventing tragic cases like that of Kay Gilderdale, whose bed-ridden daughter died after she gave her morphine and a cocktail of drugs.
Mrs Gilderdale 55, was given a 12-month conditional discharge for assisting the suicide of ME sufferer Lynn, 31, who had already attempted to kill herself and begged her mother to let her die.
The judge at her trial in East Sussex applauded the “commonsense, decency and humanity” of the jury, which took just two hours to acquit Mrs Gilderdale of attempted murder, and questioned if it had been in the public interest to prosecute her after she had already admitted aiding and abetting a suicide.
Mr Justice Bean told her: “There is no dispute you were a caring and loving mother and that you considered you were acting in the best interests of your daughter.
“You had cared for her selflessly and with exemplary devotion for 17 years and never tired of that burden.”
Ms MacDonald said the tragic circumstances showed the need for her bill, which is expected to face its first vote in the autumn.
It would allow anyone aged over 16 to request help to die, as long as they had been diagnosed as terminally ill or permanently physically incapacitated, and were finding life intolerable.
They would have to have been registered with a GP in Scotland for at least 18 months, and would have to discuss their wishes with a doctor and psychiatrist on two separate occasions.
Ms MacDonald, who began campaigning for a change in the law two years ago after she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, said: “I have a huge amount of sympathy for Mrs Gilderdale.
“Her daughter was mentally competent and intent on committing suicide.
“Her mother backed her up in the very way her daughter wanted. However, as the law stands, she was charged with attempted murder.
“One of the things my bill sets out to achieve is that parents should not be put in this dreadful position.”
The week-long trial at Lewes Crown Court heard Mrs Gilderdale’s daughter was diagnosed with ME at 14 and required round-the-clock care at home in Stonegate, near Heathfield, East Sussex.
Jurors were told the once active and musical girl led an “unimaginably wretched” life in her later years.
She was paralysed from the waist down, unable to speak, eat or drink and fed by tube.
She had attempted suicide in the past, had drafted a “living will”, placed a Do Not Resuscitate note on her medical records and considered ending her life at Dignitas, the Swiss-based assisted suicide clinic.
In the early hours of December 3, 2008, she took an overdose of morphine by injecting it into a vein, according to Mrs Gilderdale’s own account to the family GP on the morning of the death.
When Lynn realised the dose was not enough, she called out to her mother, who spent an hour trying to persuade her not to kill herself.
She told her mother she wanted the “pain to go” and did not want to go on living. Mrs Gilderdale spent the next 30 hours helping her to die by handing her two syringes of morphine which her daughter administered herself.
At one point, Mrs Gilder-dale felt the drug had not achieved her daughter’s aim and, fearing she would be brain-damaged, gave her crushed tablets followed by more doses of morphine.
The decision to prosecute was made before the law was clarified in England to make it easier for those helping a relative end their life to know if they faced prosecution.
An Aberdeenshire councillor last night urged colleagues to lobby MSPs to support Ms MacDonald’s bill.
Independent Westhill and District councillor Mark Cullen said his father, Martin, died from cancer 21 years ago and it would have been “a comfort” if legislation had been in place. He said: “It would allow those to whom it applied to end their life with dignity in their own country, among family and friends.”