As many as 800 UK residents suffering from terminal illnesses are on a waiting list for assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic. It's illegal to assist suicides in Great Britain and the crime is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
UK residents are going to Switzerland in record numbers to die at the controversial Swiss clinic
Dignitas, which offers assisted suicides to terminally ill patients.
Since 2002, statistics show there has been a ten-fold increase in the number of Britons who went to Dignitas to die. The law in Britain forbids assisted suicide, so Britons are traveling to Switzerland instead.
While 800 are on the waiting list, 34 men and women were given the green light by the Swiss clinic and doctors and will carry out their assisted suicide soon. The patients have provided documentary evidence of their terminally ill condition and were interviewed by doctors at the clinic. Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas, has to also give the final approval for the procedure.
If the disease is curable or if the patient doesn’t have a sound mind, Dignitas rejects their request to die.
Dignitas records show 15 Britons took their lives in 2003; 26 in 2006; eight in the first five months of 2008; and 23 in the last 12 months.
The 1961 Suicide Act not only bans assisted suicides in Great Britain, but also punishes relatives or friends with up to 14 years in prison if they travel with a loved one who is going to have help dying overseas.
Debbie Purdy,46, who suffers from progressive multiple sclerosis, will go to the House of Lords and ask lawmakers to see if her husband will be prosecuted by the government if he helps her travel abroad to die.
Baroness Jay, a former leader of the House of Lords, and Lord Falconer, a former lord chancellor, are leading a team trying to change laws to help the families.
Baroness Jay told the
Guardian:
"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."
Although the British Government has this strict law, it has not punished any family members for assisting their loved ones to die in places like Dignitas.
Jay added:
"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."
Lesley Close traveled with her brother John, who had motor neurone disease. John died at the Dignitas clinic. Close told the Guardian her brother died a peaceful death 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."
The Dignity in Dying, an organization that is campaigning for a new right to assisted death in Great Britain, also wants the British laws to be changed.
Sarah Wooten, chief executive, of the organization told the Guardian:
"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."
