Husband Tells Oireachtas Committee How Terminally Ill Wife Travelled To Belgium For Assisted Dying To End ‘Intolerable Pain’

Indo ✏The husband of a woman who died by assisted dying after travelling from Ireland to Belgium said she did not want to end her life but she was enduring terrible pain that could not be relieved.

Eilish O'Regan

Garret Ahern, from Limerick, said his wife Vicky Janssens, a UCC lecturer, died on April 21 by availing of assisted dying in a friend’s house in Belgium where she was born.

His wife suffered from breast cancer which had spread, he told the Oireachtas committee on assisted dying.

He was one of four people to give personal testimonies to the committee, including Tom Curran whose late partner, Marie Fleming, a multiple sclerosis sufferer, took a High Court case a decade ago to allow for assisted dying.

The committee was also addressed by John Wall from Co Clare who has terminal prostate cancer and Elma Walsh from Co Kerry whose teenage son Donal had appealed to people, before his tragic death from cancer at the age 16 in 2013, to cherish life.

Mr Ahern said the decision to travel was reached after enduring terrible, constant pain that could not be relieved.