86-year-old woman starves herself to death in UK

The News Minute| October 19, 2014| 5.40 pm ISTJean Davies was 86 years old when she died on October 1st after starving herself for five long weeks. A report that appeared on The Independent says that Davies had to starve herself to death because the restrictive laws on assisted suicide in the United Kingdom left her with “no alternative”. Davies, who was also a right to die campaigner, suffered from several conditions which caused her chronic back pain and also frequent fainting episodes, but did not have a terminal illness. Speaking to The Sunday Times a week before her death, Davies said- “It is hell. I can’t tell you how hard it is. You wouldn’t decide this unless you thought your life was going to be so bad. It is intolerable.” She added that she had no other way as all the other methods were “either illegal or I would need to go to Switzerland – and I want to die in my own bed”. Davies’s family of six- four children and two grandchildren were supportive of her decision and she stopped drinking water almost two weeks before her death on September 16.--