A volunteer who went with a paralysed woman as she ended her life says she would do so again despite the police ordeal she faced.
Sue Lawford, 70, agreed to go with Sharon Johnston to the Dignitas clinic.
Sharon, 60, had been paralysed in a fall and linked up with Sue via assisted dying campaign group My Death, My Decision.
After setting off for the airport, Sharon started getting phone calls from police.
And following Sharon’s assisted death in Switzerland, Sue and a researcher who went with them were subjected to a six-month police investigation.
Sue told the Mirror: “Sharon’s last 24 hours were pretty stressful with the police and social services trying to intervene.
“What should have been calm and peaceful and her saying her last goodbyes, it was just high tension.”
Sue fears Sharon was treated differently because of her physical disability.
She explained: “There was a feeling that she was potentially mentally or emotionally impaired. That really annoyed me, that kind of response. She was absolutely sharp as a tack.
“Thankfully... her actual death was incredibly calm and peaceful.”
Sharon’s final words, after drinking a life-ending medication through a straw, were: “This is a lovely feeling.” A guidelines document on assisted suicide investigations states: “Police should seek to interview such a suspect under caution as a voluntary attendee.”
Sue, however, was arrested at 5.30am.
She was put in a police van while officers searched her home in Cardiff, Wales, and seized her devices.
Dyfed-Powys Police eventually dropped their probe into the death of Sharon from Cardigan, Ceredigion.
Sue admitted she hoped never to have to visit the Dignitas clinic again.
"I would obviously need to weigh up the individual circumstances," she said.
“But for the same reasons I felt compelled to help Sharon – whom I’d never met – I would have to say yes.”
A Freedom of Information Request revealed Dyfed-Powys Police spent almost £7,000 on overtime and IT costs.
Trevor Moore, Chair of My Death, My Decision, said: “Sue Lawford’s compassion should have been rewarded, not punished with a wasteful and heavy-handed police investigation.”
The Health and Social Care Committee is compiling a report on assisted dying following a public inquiry.
Assisted dying critics say relaxing the law would lead to people ending their lives to avoid being a care burden.
Dyfed-Powys Police declined to comment.
