800 Britons on waiting list for Swiss suicide clinic
Pastor Dale Morgan
800 Britons on waiting list for Swiss suicide clinic*
• Record numbers want assisted death
• Lords will hear plea to overturn law
* Denis Campbell, health correspondent
* The Observer, Sunday 31 May 2009
Record numbers of Britons who are suffering from terminal illnesses are
queueing up for assisted suicide at the controversial Swiss clinic
Dignitas, the Observer can reveal.
Almost 800 have taken the first step to taking their lives by becoming
members of Dignitas, and 34 men and women, who feel their suffering has
become unbearable, are ready to travel to Zurich and take a lethal drug
overdose.
The tenfold increase in the number of Britons who have joined Dignitas
since 2002 will raise questions about the law that bans assisted suicide
in Britain.
On Tuesday, 46-year-old Debbie Purdy, who suffers from progressive
multiple sclerosis, will go to the House of Lords, the UK's highest
court, asking it to determine whether her husband Omar Puente will be
prosecuted if he helps her to travel abroad to die.
The 34 Britons given what Dignitas calls a "provisional green light" to
die have provided documentary evidence of their condition and been
interviewed by both a doctor and Ludwig Minelli, the founder of
Dignitas, and satisfied them that they are mentally fit to make such a
decision.
One of the 34 is due to undertake an accompanied suicide very soon. Four
have already secured fixed dates for their deaths, but adjourned them.
The remaining 29 have not yet arranged a specific date.
A further four British people failed to get Dignitas's permission after
the Swiss doctor who examines all applicants said they should not be
helped, either because they did not have an incurable illness or were
judged not of sound enough mind to reach such a decision.
Dignitas figures also show that 15 Britons took their lives there in
2003, 26 in 2006, eight in the first five months of 2008 and 23 in the
past 12 months.
The disclosures will reopen the highly charged debate about euthanasia.
This week, an influential group of peers, led by two former ministers in
Tony Blair's cabinet, will seek to end what they see as the outdated and
inhumane situation in which relatives or friends risk up to 14 years in
prison if they travel with a loved one undertaking assisted dying overseas.
The peers - led by Lord Falconer, a former lord chancellor, and Baroness
Jay, a former leader of the House of Lords - will table an amendment to
the Coroners and Justice Bill in an attempt to lift the threat of
prosecution from people in England and Wales who want to support someone
in their final moments.
The 1961 Suicide Act criminalises anyone who aids, abets, counsels or
procures someone else's suicide, and some relatives who have travelled
have been questioned by police on their return. However, government law
officers have already admitted that no one who goes abroad for that
purpose is likely to face prosecution.
"It's a tragic anomaly that people who are giving a last loving
assistance to a loved one find themselves under threat of 14 years'
imprisonment if they do," Jay said last night. "Having made the very
difficult decision to travel abroad to somewhere like Switzerland, where
assisted dying is legal, someone would want the sort of support they
would expect here from a husband, wife or loved one. The law in this
area is a fudge and parliamentarians are lagging behind public opinion
on this."
Prominent peers with legal or medical backgrounds are backing the move,
including Lib Dem barrister Lord Lester, Baroness Greengross, the former
head of Age Concern England, and Lord (Naren) Patel, chairman of the
National Patient Safety Agency.
If they win - and they are increasingly confident - it would force the
government to take a view. It used parliamentary procedure to prevent
voting in March on an identical amendment in the Commons, which had been
proposed by Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary until 2007.
Lesley Close, who travelled to Dignitas with her brother, John, in 2003
when he ended a life overshadowed by motor neurone disease, said: "More
and more British people will be joining Dignitas and travelling to
Switzerland to die because more people are aware of the compassionate
and peaceful death you can achieve there.
"The interest in Dignitas among Britons underlines the case for reform
of the law here. We need the same facility here [as Dignitas]. It's a
perfectly rational and humane decision to end your life if you are
suffering intolerably at the end of a terminal illness."
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for
a new right to assisted dying, said: "These figures show that the
situation in this country is forcing people into difficult and dangerous
decisions - to go abroad for an assisted death, or ask their doctor or a
relative to help them die, or to attempt suicide themselves, some of
which end up being botched.
"There is clearly a growing demand in this country for a well regulated,
legal right for people with terminal illness, who are mentally
competent, to end their life if they choose to."