'I considered killing my suffering wife,' Bridgnorth man tells party conference
A man described how he considered ending his wife's life as she lay in agony with terminal cancer.
Warwick Jackson, from Bridgnorth, told delegates at the Conservative Party conference how he considered smothering his wife of 37 years with a pillow to put her out of her misery.
Mr Jackson, who is campaigning for a change in the law to permit assisted dying, said his wife Ann had asked nurses caring for her to end her life hours before her death.
"There was a pillow between us, and I wondered if I had the courage to push it near her face, would it add to her suffering, would it be her final memory of me? In the end, I could not bring myself to do it, and the suffering went on."
Mr Jackson, 63, was speaking at an event hosted by the campaign group Dignity in Dying. He was joined on the platform by former cabinet minister Kit Malthouse.
Mr Jackson told how, as her condition deteriorated, he was forced to surround his wife with electric fans to aid her breathing.
"She knew she was going to suffocate slowly, one way or another," said Mr Jackson.
"During the night she asked one of her carers if she could help end her life, the nurse explained to Ann this would not be possible. I asked the medical professionals what could be done to ease the situation, but they said Ann was on the maximum doses of both painkillers and sedatives.
"She remained lucid until almost the end, Ann's suffering was to go on for four days and four nights before she eventually died."
Mr Jackson told how the discovery that Ann had terminal cancer came as a total surprise to them in 2018.
As he watched his wife's condition deteriorate, he considered asking her whether she would wish to go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where assisted dying is legal. He said he decided against asking, a decision he later regretted.
She died three days before Christmas in 2020, the same week that a friend's dog was put down by the vet.
"The dog was wagging its tail before it died," Mr Jackson told delegates.
"I considered the difference between the way we treat animals and the way we treat our loved ones," he said.
"What I witnessed was inhumane, if I had allowed an animal to go through such suffering I would have been convicted of cruelty."
Delegates were told that Conservative Party members backed a change in the law on assisted dying by a margin of three-to-one.
Mr Malthouse said it was likely that a vote would take place in Parliament, with Private Members' Bills being prepared in both the Lords and the Commons.
He said how assisted dying was now legal in Australia, and that the States of Jersey and the Isle of Man had also voted in favour of changing the law. The Scottish government would also be voting on the matter soon, he added.
Mr Jackson added: "MPs need to know that no amount of palliative care could have eased Ann's torment.
"Ann deserved a proper say over her death, including the option of assisted dying. It’s time for the law to change. I fully support the call for a free vote on assisted dying because this is a personal issue for so many of us – and we need MPs to listen."
Earlier this month Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reaffirmed his promise to Dame Esther Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer, to make parliamentary time available for debate on the issue.
