A woman has pleaded for a change to the UK’s current "cruel law" around assisted dying in a heartbreaking message shared after her death.
On Wednesday (March 20), Paola Marra, a former music industry and charity sector worker, made the decision to end her life at Dignitas, the Swiss assisted-dying organization.
According to The Guardian, the 53-year-old suffered from terminal stage 4 bowel cancer since 2021 and ended her life following months of planning and paperwork.
"Bowel cancer has been brutal and non-stop," she said the day before her death. "I just feel ready … The thing that makes me break down is talking about my friends and having to say goodbye to people. The rest of it I can live with, or die with. I can deal with leaving."
Before her planned passing, Marra teamed up with renowned photographer Rankin to speak out about assisted dying.
In a video released on Thursday (March 21), the late woman, said: "When you watch this, I will be dead. I'm choosing to seek assisted dying because I refuse to let a terminal illness dictate the terms of my existence.
"The pain and suffering can become unbearable. It's a slow erosion of dignity, the loss of independence, the stripping away of everything that makes life worth living," she continued. "Assisted dying is not about giving up. In fact, it’s about reclaiming control. It’s not about death. It’s about dignity."
Watch Marra's heartbreaking video below:Under the 1961 Suicide Act, assisting someone to take their own life is a crime in England and Wales. Scottish laws also leave anyone assisting open to prosecution.
The Canadian, who was originally from British Columbia but had lived in London for more than 35 years, told the leaders of UK political parties the current law was "unfair and cruel" and that as a result she was denied "more time with my friends and people who love me".
Marra first discovered she had breast cancer in 2017, then bowel cancer was also found three years later. She described her treatment as "brutal" and said she could no longer take many painkillers, per Daily Mail.
In an accompanying open letter to party leaders, Marra said that, due to the current law, she had to travel to Dignitas alone because she did not want her loved ones "to be questioned by the police or get into trouble".
It cost Marra about £15,000 ($18,000) to take her own life and she said that for people who could not afford it the law "will force them to endure a painful death, or drive them to take their own lives".
"I have not lived to see the law change – but there are thousands of dying people right now who are desperately waiting for a compassionate assisted dying law," she stated. "My hope is that, by the one-year anniversary of my death, there will have been real progress towards giving dying people the hope of a real choice here in the UK."
Recently, UK politician Sir Keir Starmer revealed that he is "committed" to allowing a vote on legalizing assisted dying should his party Labour win the general election, as reported by The Independent.
The 61-year-old pledged campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, whose revelation that she had joined Dignitas as she lives with stage four cancer was spotlighted in the media. However, Rantzen's daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, said Starmer's commitment would be too late for "thousands of people who are suffering today" and has urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to "have a vote now".
Our thoughts are with Marra's family and friends at this time.
