Euthanasia clinic couple died in each other's arms

A mentally ill couple travelled to a Swiss euthanasia clinic to commit suicide, an inquest heard today.

Robert Stokes, 59, and wife Jennifer Anne, 53, were found with their arms around each other on a bed at the Zurich clinic after voluntarily taking a drug normally used to put down animals.

The inquest in Bedford heard that, although both had severe health problems, neither was terminally ill.

Mr and Mrs Stokes were helped to end their lives by charity Dignitas which normally helps terminally ill people commit suicide.

In a statement, their son David said he considered both his parents to be mentally disturbed.

"I didn't know they intended to kill themselves," he said. "I know my parents were not terminally ill. The only terminal illness they had was inside their heads."

The couple met while being treated at a mental hospital in Australia. He suffered from epilepsy because of brain surgery and electric shock treatment he had received for severe depression.

After a serious back injury she had refused a blood transfusion on religious grounds and so sufferedagonising pain. The inquest heard there had been two previous joint suicide attempts.

Letters from Dignitas were found at the couple's Leighton Buzzard home.

The inquest heard Mr Stokes had drunk 15 grams of pento-barbitone and had helped his wife to drink it with a straw.

Bedfordshire coroner David Morris recorded verdicts that both took their lives with the help of a "euthanasia assistant".

The couple's daughter, Helen Stokes, said outside the inquest: "Though I cannot condone [ Dignitas's] actions I do accept and understand my parents' decision."