‘Once you take choice away, there’s nothing left’: assisted dying edges closer in Jersey, but can they protect against a ‘duty to die’?

Lynne Cottignies, who is under the care of Jersey’s ‘faultless’ hospice service, says she would like to choose the timing and manner of her death. Photograph: David Ferguson/The Guardian

Lynne Cottignies has been planning her funeral. A wicker coffin and a church service with Ave Maria and All Things Bright and Beautiful, followed by a wake at the Royal Jersey golf club where she was lady captain a few years ago. Later, close friends and family will scatter her ashes on a beach near her Jersey home, a spot where they have enjoyed happy sunset barbecues.

Between now and then, Cottignies, 71, faces the prospect of increasing and potentially unbearable pain as the cancer that started in her breast spreads. “I’ve had a lot of different chemo treatments, and just about every side-effect possible. But now time’s up. I’m too weak for anything else.”