{"id":55038,"date":"2026-04-24T14:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/55038\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:08:09","slug":"healthy-mum-ends-life-at-swiss-clinic-while-grieving-death-of-her-son-news-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/55038\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy mum ends life at Swiss clinic while grieving death of her son | News UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"339\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_294468755-ea7a.jpg\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28103284\" alt=\"Healthy mum heartbroken after son's death ends life at Swiss clinic\" decoding=\"sync\"\/><br \/>\n\t\tWendy Duffy, who was in good health, travelled to Pegasos \u2018suicide clinic\u2019 in Basel to end her life following the death of her son Marcus four years ago (Picture: MURRAY SANDERS)<\/p>\n<p>A grieving British mother who revealed yesterday she was choosing to die at a clinic in <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/switzerland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Switzerland<\/a> ended her own life today. <\/p>\n<p>Wendy Duffy, who was in good <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/health-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">health<\/a>, travelled to Pegasos \u2018suicide clinic\u2019 in <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/basel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Basel<\/a> to end her life following the death of her son Marcus four years ago. <\/p>\n<p>The 56-year-old insisted her decision to spend her \u00a310,000 life <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/savings\/\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">savings<\/a> travelling to the clinic was a \u2018happy one\u2019. <\/p>\n<p>She passed away wearing her son\u2019s t-shirt which still \u2018smells like him\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The former care worker told the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/lifestyle\/family-parenting\/article-15756029\/too-heartbroken-carry-mother-swiss-suicide-clinic.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Mail<\/a>\u00a0that she had planned her death for more than a year, including the final thing she would hear.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tSign up for all of the latest stories\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Start your day informed with Metro&#8217;s <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/newsletters\/news-updates\/?signup-source=news-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News Updates<\/a> newsletter or get <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/newsletters\/breaking-news?ito=news-article&amp;?signup_source=news-article-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Breaking News<\/a> alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<p>Samaritans are here to listen, day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org for more information.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You can choose whatever song you want. I\u2019m going to go out to\u00a0<a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/lady-gaga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lady Gaga<\/a>\u00a0and Bruno Mars singing Die With A Smile,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You\u2019ll never be able to hear that song now without thinking of me, will you?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Ruedi Habegger, Pegasos founder, said on Friday: \u2018I can confirm that Wendy Duffy, at her own request, was assisted to die on April 24 and that the procedure was completed without incident and in full compliance with her wishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I can also confirm that neither we nor any of the professional staff assessing her mental capacity had any doubt as to her intention, understanding and independence of both thought and action. In historical terms at English law, hers was a case of \u201csane suicide\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>For decades, Switzerland\u00a0<a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/09\/12\/assisted-dying-bill-debate-will-happen-next-24146947\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was one of the few countries to allow<\/a>\u00a0a doctor to help severely ill patients end their lives with medication, or the \u2018right to die\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Pegasos has\u00a0<a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/11\/30\/dignitas-founder-ends-life-one-clinics-days-birthday-24997043\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">less stringent rules than Digitas<\/a>; its assisted suicide procedures include a lengthy evaluation of a written request and medical information and at least two face-to-face meetings with a doctor.<\/p>\n<p>Patients must show they are mentally competent and have not been pushed toward the decision by anyone with an ulterior motive.<\/p>\n<p>Pegasus founder Ruedi Habegger said: \u2018Wendy is very decided. I saw her at her hotel today, I had a long talk with her and with the psychiatrist that is going to see her a second time before the VAD [voluntary assisted death].<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He is very confident that we are doing the right thing letting her go, that we should not stand in her way.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018She is absolutely not in a depressive state. I\u2019m very experienced in this field. There are no worries with Wendy, none at all.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/04\/24\/healthy-mum-heartbroken-after-sons-death-ends-life-at-swiss-clinic-28103260\/mailto:webnews@metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">For more stories like this, <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\">check our news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tComment now<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tComments<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" class=\"metro-button share-bar-preferred-source\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tAdd as preferred source<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tNews Updates<\/p>\n<p>Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wendy Duffy, who was in good health, travelled to Pegasos \u2018suicide clinic\u2019 in Basel to end her life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1202,41,17,3576],"class_list":{"0":"post-55038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-swiss","10":"tag-switzerland","11":"tag-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116460080538375064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}