A firefighter and father-of-two who battled a degenerative disease has died in a Swiss euthanasia clinic with his wife by his side.
Troy Thornton, from Victoria, met his fate through lethal injection on Friday at a clinic in Basel, Switzerland, with his tearful wife Christine holding his hand.
His two teenage children stayed in Australia with their grandparents while their shattered parents made the trip to the other side of the world.
When Jack, 17, and Laura, 14, saw their father pack his luggage on Sunday, they knew they would never see him come home again.
'The hardest thing I've ever had to do is say goodbye to them,' Mr Thornton said before his death.
'It just destroyed me.'
A hero firefighter and father-of-two who battled a degenerative disease has died in a Swiss euthanasia clinic with his wife by his side. Pictured: Troy Thornton with wife Christine, son Jack and daughter Laura
Victorian man Troy Thornton met his fate through lethal injection on Friday at a clinic in Bassel, Switzerland, with his tearful wife Christine holding his hand (pictured, Troy Thornton with wife Christine, son Jack and daughter Laura)
Mr Thornton's disease - multiple system atrophy - is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder
Mr Thornton's disease - multiple system atrophy - is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder.
There are no treatments and there is no prospect of recovery, but death can take years.
'Doctors have always told me that you don't die of it, you die with it. You can live for quite a few years, but ... you end up being a vegetable,' Mr Thornton said before his injection in Basel.
'After a while it attacks different systems, breathing, swallowing. I'd end up drowning in my own mucous, that's what happens.'
He called his disease a 'beast' - one that takes everything away slowly.
'First you can't swim, then you can't run, walk, kick the footy with your children, you can't surf, drive; eventually it takes your career,' Mr Thornton said.
'Then you end up being a vegetable. It's a pretty grim way to go out.'
He described every day as 'like Groundhog Day' - filled with incessant vertigo, double vision and nausea.
A broken Mr Thornton initially hoped to be euthanised in Australia and was banking on Victorian assisted dying laws to pull through.
In that way he would of at least had his dying wish respected: to be surrounded with family and loved ones.
'My friend's dad, he was 85, died recently. He had his whole family there. They were watching footy and he died with them all around him. That's really nice, that's how you want to go out,' Mr Thornton said.
But despite Victoria becoming the first state to legalise voluntary assisted dying, Mr Thornton didn't qualify.
A broken Mr Thornton initially hoped to be euthanised in Australia and was banking on Victorian assisted dying laws to pull through
But despite Victoria becoming the first state to legalise voluntary assisted dying, Mr Thornton didn't qualify
Mr Thornton hoped to follow through with assisted dying in Victoria so he would of at least had his dying wish respected: to be surrounded with family and loved ones
Mr Thornton could not find two doctors willing to say with absolute certainty that he would die within 12 months, which in his case is a condition to access the legislation
'I've just had enough, but unfortunately the laws, while they are a huge step in the right direction, they don't help me. They discount a lot of people,' Mr Thornton said of Victoria's assisted dying law
He could not find two doctors willing to say with absolute certainty that he would die within 12 months, which in his case is a condition to access the legislation.
That left him with Switzerland as his only option, away from his family and lamenting the shortcomings of the Victoria assisted dying law.
'I've just had enough, but unfortunately the laws, while they are a huge step in the right direction, they don't help me. They discount a lot of people.'
Mr Thornton said the danger is people will think the issue has been resolved, 'but what the guy in the street doesn't understand is that those laws
