A British woman accused of killing her mother has said she supplied the fatal pills because the chronically ill 70-year-old wanted to die with “dignity.”
Emma Nightingale, 36, told the Eastern Daily Press that her mother, Lorna, “begged her” to obtain the tablets after years of pain became unbearable.
“She’d had enough and wanted to go with dignity,” Emma said, citing her mother’s chronic kidney disease, serious dental issues and cataracts in both eyes.
Lorna was found dead in a studio apartment in East London last December after a drug overdose, following a call Emma made to the ambulance service.
“She wanted for me to be there with her,” Emma said. “She was happy and smiling right up to the end, watching all her TV shows in bed surrounded by the flowers I constantly bought her.”
In the first half of 2025, Emma moved the pair from her mother’s home in Lowestoft, about 100 miles northeast of London.
Emma said that during their final weeks in the studio, she and her mother spoke about ending Lorna’s life before her suffering became too severe.
Assisted suicide remains illegal in the UK, where helping someone end their life can carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years, although a bill permitting assisted suicide for terminally ill adults was passed in November 2024.
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As a committed Christian and regular churchgoer, Emma struggled with the ethics of assisted suicide for her mom, who was not terminally ill.
Lorna was too ill to make the journey to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal.
“Mom never would have made the journey, and it was her wish to pass away at home in her own country,” she said.
Emma didn’t provide details on where, when, or how she got the pills, for fear that the doctor who supplied them could face legal trouble.
Emma was arrested and charged with murder, spending five months in custody before pleading not guilty in the spring.
Prosecutors subsequently dropped the murder charges because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction,” according to court documents cited by the Eastern Daily Press.
She is currently waiting to see if she will face further charges, but stands by her actions.
“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. It was the humane thing to do,” she said.
“There was no way I was going to let the person closest to me in the world, my mom, who was my best friend, go through that sort of pain and suffering.”
