Diane Pretty - who lost a legal battle for her husband to help her commit suicide - has died, family members announced today. Mrs Pretty, 43, from Luton, Bedfordshire, died at a hospice near her home at 4.25pm yesterday, said husband Brian.
The mother-of-two, who suffered from motor neurone disease, had begun experiencing breathing difficulties ten days ago, just three days after she lost her right-to-die court challenge.
Mrs Pretty, who fought a legal case to the highest court in the land and then to the European Court of Human Rights, had always said she wanted her husband to help her commit suicide because she feared the choking and asphyxia often caused by her disease.
Mr Pretty said: "Diane had to go through the one thing she had foreseen and was afraid of and there was nothing I could do to help."
Mr Pretty was at his wife's bedside when she died at the Bedfordshire hospice yesterday.
He said in a statement issued by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES), which supported the couple in their legal fight: "On Thursday May 2, Diane asked me to call the doctor as she was having trouble with her breathing.
"She had no chest infection and her airways were clear.
"The next day she went into the hospice and started having breathing problems again.
"The doctors and nurses managed to get her stable for a few days but she was still in pain.
"The staff were wonderful at their job and there was always someone there with her.
"They had trouble getting her comfortable and pain-free until Thursday evening, after which she started to slip into a coma-like state and eventually died.
"Out of this, Diane had to go through the one thing she had foreseen and was afraid of - and there was nothing I could do to help.
"I was with Diane most of the day and was about to come home when I was stopped and told it was time.
"And then for Diane it was over, free at last."
VES director Deborah Annetts said: "Diane was an extraordinary woman. Everyone who had the privilege of meeting her was struck by her humanity and bravery in the face of unbearable suffering."
The couple had collaborated extensively with BBC1's Panorama programme before and after her right-to-die court case at Strasbourg.
The documentary was due to be shown tonight.
PA