NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS- HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY. ........................................................................ PANORAMA "Please Help Me Die" RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 12:05:02 ........................................................................ BRIAN PRETTY: (watching video) There she is, now she's gone. See, you missed her. SARAH BARCLAY: This is a story about a girl who grew up to be famous for an extraordinary reason. Diane Pretty discovered she was dying and made a decision. She wanted a good death, not a bad one. She wanted her husband, Brian, to help her commit suicide but this was illegal. They decided to challenge the law. Memories of a daughter her mother knows she's losing. JULIE JAMES: I've watched her go through it all. I've watched all her limbs gradually die. I've watched everything go. Oh, here we are now.. (watching video) Now, I'm hoping she'll have a peaceful death. BRIAN: I recognise that body. JULIE: Recognise that bum? BRIAN: No. (laughter) BARCLAY: This is Diane Pretty's story, but one day it could be ours. JULIE JAMES Diane's Mother I would like someone to give her a pill, or someone to give her an injection. BARCLAY: So you agree with.. JULIE: Yes, I agree. I agree, my husband agrees, my family agrees, all her brothers and.. like her brothers and sisters agree. We all agree with this. I do agree with it. I mean if I was in a position like she was, I'd want it. BARCLAY: It's just over two years since Diane's illness was diagnosed. Now her screams can be heard half way down her street. This is Diane as she was earlier this month, getting weaker and more frustrated. For the last year she's been unable to speak. A machine she operates with her wrist has become her voice, a machine that becomes part of our conversations about why she wants to die. Diane, have you had enough? DIANE PRETTY Mmm BARCLAY: Enough of this? DIANE: (nods head, affirmative) BARCLAY: If you had your way, would you rather die now? DIANE: Mmm (nods head, affirmative) BARCLAY: Does your life have any quality left for you? DIANE: Ergh (shakes head, negative) BARCLAY: None at all? DIANE: (shakes head, negative) BARCLAY: How do you feel, Brian, when she says that? BRIAN PRETTY I know that's what she wants but it doesn't hurt any less, but I'll stay by her all the way because that's what I promised to do. From the day we married I promised to stay with her. BARCLAY: Strange to think that the boy Diane met when she was just 15 and hoped to spend the rest of her life with, is having to keep that promise in a way he could never have imagined when he married her 25 years ago last summer. BRIAN: Everything sort of clicked at once, she felt right to be with, so of course it stemmed from there. DIANE: (voice machine) I met Brian on a coach trip to Clacton. BRIAN: We had our first kiss under the pier at Clacton you see. People turn round and say.. you know.. do you believe in love at first sight. Well it wasn't virtually love at first sight, it was love by the end of the day. (laughs) DIANE: (voice machine) Because of the illness we can't hold hands or walk arm in arm, have lengthy discussions, or even cuddle. But we still have a laugh, still talk and still love each other. BARCLAY: Nothing could have prepared Diane and Brian for the shock of discovering that she had motor neurone disease, a devastating illness which she was told would gradually paralyse and finally kill her. BRIAN: We're young enough to enjoy our life, to have a few more good years of laugher, but that got taken away when she got diagnosed. A month later, we had a wheelchair, then we had a ramp, then we had to have a floor lift put in, so now she's getting to the point now where she doesn't.. I can hardly understand what she's saying. I don't want to lose her. I want her back the way she was. DIANE: (smiling) Ergh BRIAN: Pardon? DIANE: Ergh. BRIAN: What you want? A kiss? You sure? DIANE: (nods affirmative) BRIAN: Alright. (kissing Diane) NURSE: Morning. Are you alright? DIANE: Ergh. NURSE: (washing Diane) Are we using these towels over here today? BRIAN: No, we've got towels over there, haven't we. BARCLAY: Diane agreed to let us make this film because she wanted to help people understand what she believes is her total loss of dignity. She's been transformed from a healthy forty year old woman to one who is paralysed from the neck down, doubly incontinent and needs constant care 24 hours a day. BRIAN: She used to be such an independent woman. It must be very, very hard for her being.. having to rely on people to do the simplest of things for her and relying on me all the time. DIANE: (voice machine) It feels degrading and humiliating. I reached the point of wanting to die when I couldn't do anything for myself. NURSE: There we go, all done. JULIE JAMES Diane's mother When you've lost everything, you can't speak, you can't do anything for yourself, you can't pee for yourself, you can't mess for yourself. I mean you know.. I mean none of us want to be like that. If we had a dog and it was in that condition we'd get fined. We'd end up in court for cruelty to animals. And yet... BARCLAY: You mean you'd have it put down. JULIE: Yes, you'd have it put down, right. BARCLAY: Her brain is still active but trapped inside a body which was becoming increasingly paralysed. Diane decided she wanted to die before the illness robbed her of control and dignity. When I talked to her about this she tried to answer. At first none of us could understand what it was she was trying to say. Some people would say it's still life, you're still alive and surely that must be better than being dead. DIANE: Ergh. BRIAN: Pardon? DIANE: Ergh. BRIAN: No, I'm not getting it. Can you help me out here. BARCLAY: Until recently Brian was the only person still able to understand her. Now even he's struggling. BRIAN: (reading Diane's message) Is that.. am.. I am... BARCLAY: Because Diane's wrist is getting weaker, every word is taking longer to write. BRIAN: Is that an E? BARCLAY: She's losing the ability to communicate with the outside world. Every word is precious now. This is letter by letter is it? BRIAN: Mmm. Is the next one A? I know what the other word is. Is that right? DIANE: (voice machine) I am dead. BARCLAY: Brian has become Diane's main carer. Every day he prepares drugs and liquid food which he gives her through a tube attached to her stomach. BRIAN: Too much chocolate? Yeah, I know, you don't like a lot of chocolate do you. (laughs) BARCLAY: She's legally entitled to have the tube removed but this would mean starving to death. Euthanasia is illegal. Diane couldn't kill herself. The only person who could help her was Brian. BRIAN: My first thoughts about when she turned round and said that she wanted to die is that she's feeling a bit run down, depressed a little bit. It took me six months to understand what she was saying to me. So of course I asked her are you sure about it. She says yes. BARCLAY: Do you think you could do it at all? BRIAN: With supervision, maybe, but on my own, no, because I would not know the first thing to do. I could even end up making her worse than what she is now and I wouldn't want that. BARCLAY: Assisted suicide is illegal in Britain. It's treated as potential murder and carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. BRIAN: (reading from letter) I'm writing on behalf of my wife, Mrs Diane Pretty, as she is unable to write for herself. Diane would like the right to choose her own way and time because the thought of dying in a distressful way is not acceptable to her. BARCLAY: Diane and Brian decided that if the law was against them they should try to change it. On Diane's behalf Brian wrote to the Human Rights organisation, Liberty, to see if they could help. MONA ARSHI Diane's Solicitor The letter was actually given to me. It's amazing how much faith she actually had in the law. I mean she believed that there must be some exception to the Suicide Act, and I told her there wasn't, it was complete prohibition on any assisted suicide, and that it was completely illegal, and she knew she had only a few months to live and she wanted to get the case off the ground as soon as possible. BBC News 10th October 2001 A terminally ill woman has gone to the High Court to ask for the right to choose how and when she dies. BARCLAY: Last October Diane went to court for the first round of her legal battle. BRIAN: (to reporters outside the High Court) Did it really had to come this far to allow her to do what she wants? BARCLAY: Her story had become a matter of intense public interest. BRIAN: It is quite daunting when you come walking out and you see all those faces and cameras. BARCLAY: Diane lost the case but the following month it went to the House of Lords, as far as she could go in English law. 29th November 2001 BRIAN: She's actually turned round and said "I feel I have no rights". Unfortunately Diane was too ill to go to the actual hearing itself. I went one day. DIANE: (voice machine) I had said that if I was able to kill myself, I would. BRIAN: If you was able to, you would. BARCLAY: But Diane lost her case there too. The Law Lords decided there was just too much at stake to change the law. There was only one more court Diane could appeal to, the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The nine hour journey by ambulance was Diane's first trip abroad. DIANE: (voice machine) A lot of people said I wouldn't make the journey. BRIAN: To Strasbourg. People said for her to do this trip she wouldn't make it. European Court of Human Rights Council of Europe 19th March 2002 I declare open the public hearing in the case of Pretty versus the United Kingdom. BARCLAY: While many other European countries have relaxed their laws on assisted suicide, Britain has one of the highest penalties of all. A case which would normally take years to come before this court had taken just three months because Diane was getting worse. To have the death she wants, she needs an answer quickly. But it will take at least a month. BRIAN: The decision at the end of the day is down to the judges. BARCLAY: Do we have a right to die? MONA ARSHI: Well that's the issue isn't it. I mean what our arguments in court were that we believe that we do have a qualified right to die because determining when you die is very much about determining your self determination and how you live and your autonomy. It's very much tied up with all those sorts of concepts. BARCLAY: Those who helped to prepare the case against Diane in Strasbourg argue that if assisted suicide became legal, there'd be much more at stake than one woman's wish for a good death. Dr JOHN KEOWN Medical Law & Ethics, Univ. of Cambridge Even if one thought that there were - in certain circumstances, certain hard cases - a right to assisted suicide, the dangers of abuse are so great, in the view of many, that that right should not be recognised. BARCLAY: Friday night bingo at their local community centre is now Brian and Diane's only social event. Seeing Diane at first hand it would be difficult to claim she wasn't a hard case. FELLOW BINGER PLAYER: Am I going to win it Diane? (laughter) BARCLAY: In her local community as well as elsewhere, Diane's dilemma has become the subject of intense debate. YOUNG GIRLS AT BINGO: We're learning about euthanasia. I think it should be right. 2nd GIRL: Yes we are learning about it. 3rd GIRL: If someone should choose to die, then they should be allowed. 4th GIRL: I wrote about her in my essay you know. BARCLAY: Public opinion is on Diane's side; 80% of people questioned in the most comprehensive British survey to date agreed that euthanasia should be legal for someone with a terminal illness. DIANE: (now very distressed) Erghhhhhh ANN DaBREO: Alright Diane, okay. Just calm down. BRIAN: Hands? Hands? BARCLAY: During the six weeks we were making this film Diane got steadily worse. Locked in a world of her own her inability to communicate can boil over into anger and frustration at the slightest provocation. BRIAN: Two times.. twice? DIANE: Erghhh BRIAN: Two days? DIANE: Erghhhhhhh ANN: Okay Diane. BARCLAY: Ann DaBreo, the nurse responsible for organising all Diane's nursing care makes her weekly visit to a family reaching crisis point. BRIAN: Unless you make yourself clearer when you're writing on that, how do you expect me to understand you. DIANE: Erghhh. BRIAN: No I won't. ANN: Don't worry Brian, it's okay. BRIAN: No it's not. BARCLAY: Ann's been trying to sort out new drugs for Diane. She may be paralysed but she can still feel pain. ANN: The other thing is with your increased spasms and the pain that that causes you, I've spoken to the GP yesterday. What he is suggesting is that you actually increase the Tegretol and see if that has any effect BRIAN: Okay, that's fair enough. We'll bring that up to 20 and we'll give it a try for... ANN: And see how that goes. Okay? Alright Diane, I'll see you on Monday then my love. Okay then, take care. Bye bye. BARCLAY: A year ago Diane told Ann she wanted someone to help her die. It was the first time a patient had ever said this to her. ANN DaBREO District Nursing Sister At first it was difficult because I couldn't actually believe really that I was actually hearing it. BARCLAY: Were you convinced when Diane said to you that she wanted Brian to help her die that she meant what she said, that she was competent at the time? ANN: She was competent at the time, and I would maintain that she is still competent. Diane can actually make you understand what she wants. BARCLAY: Has she ever changed her mind about this ANN: No, she's never changed her mind. BARCLAY: When Ann the nurse came in this morning, you seemed quite distressed and... Were you in pain? DIANE: (voice machine) Yes, I suffer pains everywhere. BARCLAY: Are you in pain all the time? DIANE: (nods head - affirmative) BARCLAY: All the time? DIANE: Mmm (nodding head - affirmative) BARCLAY: There's always some part of you that's hurting? DIANE: Mmm (nodding head - affirmative) BARCLAY: And even though you have quite a lot of medication, does that not take the pain away? DIANE: (shakes head - negative) BRIAN: Some, but not all. DIANE: (nods in agreement) BARCLAY: But not all of it. BARCLAY: Every Friday morning Diane goes to the local hospice for respite care. BRIAN: (seeing Diane off on) See you later Di. BARCLAY: It gives Brian four hours off. What do you think when she goes away? BRIAN: Well that she's going to be alright, she's going to enjoy herself, ends up running the place, you know.. telling everybody else what to do. (laughs) BARCLAY: Do you miss her when she's gone? BRIAN: Yes and no, because we're apart, but no because I know that I've got time for myself to go and do some things what I want to do wish is more often than not, go and make sure her mum and dad's alright. DIANE: (arrives at hospice) BARCLAY: Although Diane is determined to stay at home for as long as possible, it's here that she may eventually come to die if she loses her legal battle. Palliative care which the hospice provides is all about helping the terminally ill to come to terms with their death and helping them value what's left of their lives. Dr Rysz Bietzk, a specialist in palliative care, is Diane's doctor. As her breathing muscles weakens, she keeps getting chest infections, and he's trying to make sure they don't cause her unnecessary comfort. DIANE: (voice machine) Thank you. DR BIETZK: Pleasure. How's the chest doing? DIANE: Erghh.. BARCLAY: Dr Bietzk believes he can help Diane to have a good death, but it won't involve intentionally shortening her life, although he knows that's what she wants. Dr RYSZ BIETZK Head of Medical Services, Pasque Hospice Other people have expressed wishes and saying oh this life isn't worth living. But to have thought it through to the extent of how that might happen, Diane would be one of the few that in my experience I've actually had. BARCLAY: Have you felt challenged by that? BIETZK: I feel there is a guidance and there's a support from what the law is saying and I think that does give you some backgrounds to kick against. I think it's a challenge trying, despite the constraints, to actually.. to convince Diane that we're on her side. BARCLAY: Whether they agree with her or not, Diane's attempts to change the law has made those who work here think more deeply about an issue that politicians and doctors often shy away from. Do you think Diane should have the choice she wants? JOHN QUILL Chief Executive, Pasque Hospice Personally I do. Personally I believe that if she's reached the point in her life that she has, that because her body is not giving her what she needs, and she doesn't want to go on like that, personally I do believe she should have that choice, yes. BARCLAY: So how do you feel about not being able to give it to her? QUILL: Yes, I'd like to be able to help her out but I still do have my clear legal responsibilities as the chief executive of an institution here and I can't break the law any more than her husband is being allowed to break the law. BARCLAY: Diane is a competent woman who's decided her quality of life is so bad she wants to die. Her only legal option is to refuse medical treatment including her feeding tube, but she doesn't want to do this just because the law takes account of some medical dilemmas but not others. Diane knows the law is for everyone, not just her. That doesn't make it easier to understand. What would you do if she came to you tomorrow and said I've had enough, I would like to be sedated, I would like to die, what would you say? QUILL: I'd have to say no, I can't help you with that. If she was on a machine it might be different. If she was on something that was literally keeping her alive that might be different. It certainly raises a different set of questions, but she's not actually on a machine being kept alive, she is alive. BARCLAY: Diane's doctors are forbidden from taking active steps to help her die. But they are legally allowed to give her powerful drugs to control pain and distress, drugs they know might shorten her life. It's called 'double effect' and it's at the heart of medical care for the terminally ill. If doctors can do this, couldn't they give her a lethal injection of help her kill herself? BIETZK: There is a difference in whether you're actually doing something active to keep somebody alive, or whether you're actually doing something actively to hasten that death. BARCLAY: Is there really a difference? BIETZK: I would personally like to feel there was. BARCLAY: You don't sound very convinced. BIETZK: I am convinced. Yes. BARCLAY: Where the end result is the same... BIETZK: The end result is the same but the intent... BARCLAY: .. and you've accepted that medical treatment is futile and the person has decided that their quality of life is not one that they wish, then death is the object, isn't it? BIETZK: Death is the object and death is what we remain in the business of treating here and handling, but enhancing and speeding the wait of that death actively as opposed to taking the journey and taking symptoms and treating a person with dignity is not the same. BARCLAY: Diane's chest infection could be a turning point. She could refuse the antibiotics to treat it and let nature take its course. The law would support her. It just isn't the death she wants. DIANE: (voice machine) I don't want to be in pain. BARCLAY: And you think if you refuse the antibiotics, then you would be in pain? DIANE: Ergh (nodding affirmative) BARCLAY: It would make things worse for you so that when some people say a chest infection can be a blessing in disguise because it's one of the ways that you can die in this situation, it's not as far as you're concerned. DIANE: (shakes head - negative) BARCLAY: The strain of Diane's illness is telling on all her family. Her daughter, Claira, who'd been living at home to help look after Diane, has moved out because she couldn't cope. Now she can't understand what her mother's trying to say. DIANE: Erghhhhh BRIAN: When mum sits up, the pillows come away. DIANE: Erghhhhh BRIAN: (raising voice) I said when mum sits up..... CLAIRE: (raising voice even louder) Right, how do I know? BRIAN: I've just told you. When mum sits up, the pillows come away. CLAIRE: Right, and who can't do the pillows dad? DIANE: Erghhhh BRIAN: They come away, you them away, they're not there. CLAIRE: You want this one away? BRIAN: Both. CLAIRE: (shouting) Well I never do them dad, how am I supposed to know. (to mother) Do you want to sit up a bit more? BRIAN: Look, mum is sitting right up. If she starts going up anymore you're going to start tipping her out. DIANE: Erghh. CLAIRE: Legs? Alright. Blankets too high? BRIAN: Diane was getting stressed out because Claire was trying to do the things for her mum. Of course Claire cannot now understand half the things that her mum is saying. So of course it's made life a little bit awkward. Her eyes tell it all because you can see that she knows she's gone that bit further down the road and it disheartens her to see that that had happened, but she knows it's going to happen and she knows it will continue to happen until finally it does.. the illness does consume her. People turn round and say well why don't I put her in a home. If we put Diane in a home now, who the hell would understand her. She'll scream the place down within 24 hours. This is why I'll keep looking after her for as long as I can and hopefully when she goes for respite the nurses can hopefully get through it. BARCLAY: As Diane gets worse, Brian's been offered increased support from the local nursing team, but he's still on his own with Diane for five nights a week, and she rarely sleeps for more than a few hours at a time. BRIAN: This is the night time medication and that's to help.. or try to help Diane to sleep through the night. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't and she has a bad night, then other things might occur where she has problems what she might need to wake me up for and that. So that's when I have my bad times. We leave the telly on all night. If she does wake up during the night, it's the loneliness, no one there. That would scare her no end by herself being in pitch black as well as dead silence. DIANE: Erghh BRIAN: Yes, alright. Give us a minute. Is the pillows okay? DIANE: Erghhh BRIAN: What? DIANE: Erghhh BRIAN: Alright. DIANE: Erghhh BRIAN: Shall I turn it down? Now what? This arm? DIANE: Erghhh BRIAN: Alright. DIANE: (voice machine) Thank you. I love you Brian. BRIAN: I love you too sweetheart. I just wish it wasn't so much bloody hard work. DIANE: Erghhh BRIAN: Your legs again, bend your knees. I set the alarm for about 7, and then the process starts all over again. That's all I can do is to look after her for as long as she wants me to look after her for. She's worth looking after. Keeps me going to see her sleeping, to see her looking like that. As though.. it's like there's nothing wrong with her. I know it's only a dream for me but it's really enough. BARCLAY: It's the 19th April, exactly a month since Diane went to Strasbourg but there's still no news. Mona, Diane's lawyer, has come to see her now famous client. MONA: How are you? BRIAN: She's having a bit of it. I'm a bit... MONA: It's good to see you. BRIAN: I think you've noticed a big change. MONA: Yes, a big change. How have you been Brian? BRIAN: Ahhh suffering a bit. MONA: You look tired. BRIAN: Well because we have a few problems.. family problems which means me and Diane are out here on our own. MONA ARSHI Diane's Solicitor What she always maintained is the fact that she wants the death, and the reason she wants that is because she just believes her dignity is impaired and there's a pain issue and there's a loss of dignity issue. Those two issues and this really demonstrates that more than ever. It just makes me really sort of sad to see that she really doesn't want this, you know.. she wanted to end this a long time ago and it wasn't possible, and obviously we weren't able to win the case for her, so that's why Strasbourg is really important. BARCLAY: In terms of the kind of death that she would have in that situation, losing means what? MONA: Well losing means for Diane continued indignity and continued paid which is something.. you know.. that's the reason why she brought the case in the first place, something that she wanted to avoid. BARCLAY: April 29th. It's 8 in the morning and the European judges are due to deliver their verdict in three hours time. DIANE: Erghh... BRIAN: Bowl? DIANE: Erghh (vomiting into bowl) BARCLAY: It's hard to believe the woman they're waiting to see will be fit enough to travel to London. There's a press conference scheduled for 1 o'clock. It's a big day for Diane after all this time. DIANE: (voice machine) It's up to them. BRIAN: It's up to them. BARCLAY: It's up to them, yes. BRIAN: She's put her life in the faith of judges before and failed, and hopefully she'll put her faith in these judges and.. you know.. in a way, she hopefully.. she hopes to succeed, but at the end of the day it's still down to them, no matter what. BARCLAY: It's a quarter past nine and deadlines are approaching. MAN: (Reporter at door) I just wanted if you'd heard, if you could let us know. BRIAN: Even if we heard I will not be saying nothing until I get to the press conference. MAN: And that's at one? BRIAN: And that's at one. MAN: Fair enough. Alright. Thanks very much. BRIAN: Okay. Thanks. Bye bye. (Telephone rings) BRIAN: Hello, hello. BARCLAY: At last, the phone call with the verdict from Strasbourg. (Brian holds phone to Diane's ear) BRIAN: Hello? Sorry, I thought Diane would like to... she heard what she wanted to hear apparently so... We'll see you when we get down there. BARCLAY: So Diane have you got the answer now? DIANE: Ergh BARCLAY: Is it okay if I ask you what it is? DIANE: (nods affirmative) BARCLAY: Is it the answer... it's no. DIANE: (Shakes head - negative.) BARCLAY: It's no. CLAIRE: You alright? We were expecting it. BARCLAY: That's what you were expecting? ANN: Hmm, the whole way through. BARCLAY: The judgment still hasn't been made public. Only Diane and her family know she's lost her case. Defeated but determined Diane begins the journey to London. BRIAN: She's a very, very private woman even to me. The only time you really see her with a smile on her face is if we go out. She can't keep up this brave smile on her face every day for everybody because it hurts her too much to do so. BARCLAY: The private face of Diane Pretty. Twenty minutes later the public one is wheeled out. DIANE: (voice machine) The law has taken all my rights away. BRIAN: She's disappointed, she would be, but she's coping fairly well at the moment but most probably later on when she has time to sit down and think about it all, she'll most probably be very upset over it. Thank you very much anyway gentlemen, and ladies. BARCLAY: This was Diane's verdict. DIANE: (voice machine) You can f**k the court. (Laughter) Dr JOHN KEOWN Medical Law & Ethics, Univ. of Cambridge She's entitled to think what she likes, but what she's not entitled to do it seems to me is to undermine the protection which the law gives to all members of our community, including many other sufferers of motor neurone disease and other terminal illnesses, and that's precisely what she would have achieved if the European Court had granted a right to assisted suicide. BARCLAY: Diane's opponents say the law has got it right. But polls suggest that up to half of Britain's doctors would support a change in the law to allow euthanasia in cases like Diane's. [BBC News] Diane Pretty has failed in her bid to win the right to die. (Brian) I am pleased in one respect because it means that I have my wife with me for a little bit longer, but I am very, very saddened because the one thing she wants to have is a choice of when she wants to die at a time of her choosing. BRIAN: As I say, up the creek without a paddle so to speak. They're not only just looking on for one person, they're to make it safe for everybody and then the fear is they go down this way, it isn't going to be safe for anybody. BARCLAY: Diane doesn't have many choices now. She could ask for her feeding tube to be removed, but she's made it clear then that what she would face is starvation. Now surely that's not an acceptable way to die either is it, just because it appeases everyone's consciences? KEOWN: Well, as I say, I think society's responsibility is to assist Diane to die in a peaceful and dignified way, but there are certain unethical ways of achieving that result and one is for her to kill herself or to be assisted to kill herself . Wrong in principle and dangerous in practice. BARCLAY: Four days later Diane's finding it difficult to breathe. BRIAN: Her chest is clear of any infections, her airways are clear so her asthma isn't playing her up. BARCLAY: So what's she's been afraid of is beginning to happen. BRIAN: It's slowly beginning to happen that the muscles that help her breathing are starting to get affected now. BARCLAY: Some of the doctors at the hospice have said that they can do a lot for you in terms of helping the pain and helping you to have a dignified and a peaceful death. Now you've had the judgement, do you believe that that's possible? DIANE: (shakes head - negative) BARCLAY: Not at all? DIANE: (shakes head) BARCLAY: Later that morning Diane arrives at the hospice. She's going to stay for a week. But if she's having trouble breathing, there may not be much longer to go. Dr RYSZ BIETZK Head of Medical Services, Pasque Hospice I think hopefully we can convince her that that death is not going to be traumatic. BARCLAY: But you can't guarantee it can you. BIETZK: We can't guarantee it but we're hoping that for the majority of cases that is the case, that it is a peaceful end and that's what we're hoping for Diane as well. BRIAN: (leaving Diane at hospice) So I'll see you tomorrow. Alright? BARCLAY: This was the last time we filmed Diane. That night she deteriorated dramatically, and by the middle of last week it seemed she had days, maybe only hours to live. BRIAN: At the moment she is not coming back home. So whether she'll be here for the remainder of the time or until they feel that she's stable enough to come back.. to come home, the decision there is down to the doctors. BARCLAY: How is she? BIETZK: She deteriorating quite rapidly now. She rallied a bit at the beginning of the weekend, probably phone to Brian who'll know that, but obviously in the last... today really particularly she's gone downhill quite considerably. BRIAN: The only thing she wanted to do was to not to face this final stage of the illness where there was a possibility which as turned to be true, that she is now, in distress, in some pain and she has a lot of trouble with her breathing. BARCLAY: All the things she was afraid of. BRIAIN: All the things she was afraid of is coming to her. BARCLAY: Later that day Diane was sedated to help control the symptoms. Only now, this close to death can her doctor take steps to ensure it's peaceful, and rest assured that neither the law nor his conscience need bye troubled. Is it possible that the drugs that she's getting may shorten her life? BIETZK: Most certainly not. In the business of trying to extend her life, and it is possible that with the sedation that yes you could see that certainly advancing that end but our intention certainly is still very much to make sure that she is comfortable and that she is not getting that distress and that's got to be our first priority. BARCLAY: Though her doctors did their best, it was the death Diane hoped to avoid. But it was the one the courts knew she might face when they decided there was too much at stake to let her have her way. BRIAN: We could have turned round and not gone to the courts at all. We could have done it behind closed doors, but no, she had to turn round and do it openly because that's the person she is. But they've slammed the doors in her face, and that I cannot forgive. BARCLAY: Diane died at the hospice yesterday with Brian by her side. Brian Pretty agreed to Panorama's Film being shown in Diane's memory. Diane Pretty died on Saturday, 11th of May, aged 43. _________ www.bbc.co.uk/panorama CREDITS Reporter Sarah Barclay VT Editor Boyd Nagle Dubbing Mixer Andrew Sears Colourist Geoff Hockney Production Co-ordinator Karen Sadler Web Producer Bessie Wedgwood Graphic Design Julie Tritton Kaye Huddy Film Research Kate Redman Production Manager Martha Estcourt Unit Manager Laura Govett Film Editor Mark Senior Assistant Producer Joanna Lee Producer & Cameraman Ken Kirby Producer Terry Tyldesley Deputy Editors Andrew Bell Karen O'Connor Editor Mike Robinson 19 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcribed by 1-Stop Express Services, London W2 1JG Tel: 020 7724 7953 E-mail 1-stop@msn.com