Right-to-die suicide letter angry at MP's 'cowardice'

A British woman who travelled to Switzerland to die has condemned the "cowardice of politicians" which forced her to spend her last hours away from home.

Geraldine McClelland, 61, a former BBC producer who was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer, said she was relieved she would not be forced to suffer any longer, and said her dying wish was for people to talk about her death.

In a letter published just hours after her death at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich yesterday, Ms McClelland, from west London, said she was not sad, but "angry that because of the cowardice of our politicians I can't die in the country I was born in".

"I would like to be able to choose to take medication to end my life if my suffering becomes unbearable for me, with my family and friends around me," she wrote. She urged readers of the letter not to feel sad for her, but to "turn it into a fight to change the law so that other people don't have to travel abroad to die".

Assisted suicide remains a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.