Thaindian News

London, Feb 25 (IANS) A British woman having multiple sclerosis rode her wheelchair over two miles to throw herself into a canal after she failed to persuade her sister to take her to a euthanasia clinic.

Carol Hutchins wanted her sister to get her to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland so that she could end her life. When her sister refused to pay for her flight to the Zurich clinic, she rode in her wheelchair for two miles to throw herself in a canal, the Daily Mail reported.

The 53-year-old had tried to throw herself into the same canal, in Reading, Berkshire, the day before her death, the inquest was told. However, a mechanism in her wheelchair had jammed, making her unable to raise the seat high enough to pull herself over the fence and into the water.

That failed attempt had made her so distraught that she returned home in tears, a coroner’s court in Windsor, Berkshire, was told.

Hutchins, after fixing the faulty mechanism, returned to the Kennet and Avon Canal in southern England the following day. She waited until workmen, who were cleaning graffiti nearby, went on a break before trying again.

Despite being paralysed from the waist down, Hutchins had enough strength to pull herself up over the fence and into the canal.

On return from their break, the workers found Hutchins’s body face down in the water. She was pronounced dead shortly after she was taken to hospital.