A former nurse who starved to death used her final words to call for assisted dying to be legalised.
Joyce Wilton, 99, died at a care home in March after begging staff to “do something so she wouldn’t wake up in the morning”.
The Second World War voluntary military nurse stopped taking her heart medication last summer to try to shorten her suffering and by January was barely able to eat.
Daughter Penny Truscott, 73, said: “She thought she would die in her sleep but it was a long, slow process. My mother was an intelligent and capable woman.
“Assisted dying could have spared her so much suffering.”
Assisted dying is illegal in the UK, with a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years.
MPs continue an inquiry into assisted dying laws this month. Critics, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, have warned the Government against legalising the act.
Trevor Moore, Chair of My Death, My Decision said: “The level of pain and suffering she went through at the end of her life is unimaginable and barbaric. A compassionate assisted dying law would have given Joyce the right to choose, when she needed it."
