Widow who watched husband with MND take own life in Swiss clinic backs assisted dying bill after being diagnosed with same disease
Barbara Shooter, 69, was told she has incurable MND less than three years after her railway executive husband, Adrian, 74, died of the disease in December 2022.
A widow who watched her husband with motor neurone disease end his own life in Switzerland has backed the assisted dying bill after being diagnosed with the condition herself.
In a terrible coincidence, Barbara Shooter, 69, was told she has incurable MND less than three years after her railway executive husband, Adrian, 74, died of the disease in December 2022.
She travelled to Pegasos, an assisted dying clinic in Basel, and held her husband of 16 years in her arms as he self-administered the intravenous drug which 'peacefully' ended his life, 18 months after his diagnosis.
Now Mrs Shooter is facing her own battle and has hit out at 'reprehensible filibustering' by members of the House of Lords, which could block The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which was passed by MPs in June.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP and architect of the legislation, has accused peers of tabling more than 1,000 'totally unnecessary' and 'very cruel' amendments in an attempt to scupper it. Supporters fear there will not be enough time to debate the long list of amendments before the parliamentary session ends, putting it at risk of collapse.
Considered one of the architects of the modern railway, Mr Shooter was a passionate railwayman who began his career with British Rail in 1970, but was best known for spearheading the successful privatisation of Chiltern Railways in the 1990s.
Such was the respect he inspired in the industry, that a bust of Mr Shooter was unveiled beside platform one at Marylebone station in central London in August 2022, a year after his diagnosis with MND.
Mrs Shooter told the Sunday Times that she had seen motor neurone disease 'up close' and it was a 'messy, brutal, nasty, vile disease.'
Adrian and Barbara Shooter pictured before his death in Switzerland in December 2022
Adrian Shooter CBE (pictured) beside a bronze statue of himself at Marylebone Station in London
MP Kim Leadbetter speaking during the debate of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, in the chamber of the House of Commons in Westminster, London, last year
'Quite frankly, if I get to a stage when I think I can't carry on, that I've got to die, I will go to Switzerland, because that would hold no fear for me,' she said.
'I could afford it; it would be easy for me. But what about everybody else? What about people who haven't got £15,000, or who are too scared to go because it's against the law, or have no one to take them?