Record numbers of Britons who are suffering from terminal illnesses are lining up for assisted suicide at the controversial Swiss clinic Dignitas.
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 10-fold increase in the number of Britons who have joined Dignitas since 2002 will raise questions about the law that bans assisted suicide in the UK.
Tomorrow, 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 last year 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by two former ministers in former British prime minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet, will seek to end what they see as the outdated and inhumane situation in which relatives or friends risk up to 14 years in prison if they travel with a loved one undertaking assisted dying overseas.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 Charles Falconer, a former lord chancellor, and Margaret 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 Britain and Wales who want to support someone in their final moments.
The 1961 Suicide Act criminalizes anyone who aids, abets, counsels or procures someone else’s suicide and some relatives who have traveled 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 during the weekend.
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