The number of Britons who have ended their lives in the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland is set to reach 300 in the next few weeks, a figure that will be used by right-to-die campaigners to bolster their call for the UK to overhaul what they say are outmoded laws prohibiting assisted dying.
Figures from Dignitas, shared with the Observer by the campaign group Dignity in Dying, reveal that 292 Britons have gone to Dignitas since 2002. The largest number of people who have died came from the Greater London area – 57 – compared with just seven from the north-east.
On Friday, Bob Cole, a 68-year-old who was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a lung cancer caused by asbestos, most likely contracted when he worked as an apprentice carpenter in the 1960s – became the first person to publicly speak about going to Dignitas before he entered it himself to end his life.
In an interview recorded with ITV News, Cole called on MPs to support the assisted dying bill, which is due for debate in the Commons in September.
“There are some of us who think we have come to the end of a useful, justifiable life and want our dignity and quality, and surely there is no wrong in saying, ‘Well, that’s it, I’ve done everything I wanted to do, I won’t be able to do anything that is worthwhile’,” he said. “And I know people will argue with me, so therefore I want to end my life now, and that will end in the next few weeks.”
He said he had reached the decision to end his life at Dignitas after escorting his wife, Ann, there. She had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and had an assisted death at its clinic 18 months ago. “There was music playing, people talking. We were saying goodbye to her, holding her hand, wishing her well. That was what she wanted,” he told ITV News. “It was a lovely, warm, dignified atmosphere.”
Cole was given a prognosis of three months to live by his oncologist in July and was told he was too weak for chemotherapy. He said that he was in severe pain and wanted to control the manner and timing of his death, something he felt unable to do in Britain.
“Bob Cole was one person, and in bravely speaking out from Zurich he laid the realities of the current law bare,” said Mickey Charouneau, spokesman for Dignity in Dying. “At the end of his life, Bob was forced to travel while in great pain so that he did not have to suffer against his wishes. He wanted the option of assisted dying available to him at home, but this was denied him.”
According to Dignity in Dying, more than 300 terminally ill people end their own lives in the UK each year, often in what it claims are “dangerous and undignified” ways.
“The current law is broken,” Charouneau said. “One person a fortnight is going to Dignitas from this country, and we’re the second highest nationality to do so after Germany. Given this involves Britons travelling a great distance, it highlights the drastic measures that people are taking simply to have control over their own death. Even the best palliative care will still leave some people dying in pain.”
Assisting someone to die, which also includes accompanying someone to Dignitas, carries a potential prison sentence of up to 14 years, although judges have taken a compassionate view in the past.
“We know that others are unable to get to Dignitas,” Charouneau said. “Almost one terminally ill person a day ends their life in this country, usually alone out of fear of prosecution for relatives or friends who may be implicated. Others who are travelling abroad sometimes do so earlier than they would have liked, out of fear that they would not be able to make the journey at a later stage in their condition.”
The anti-euthanasia group Care Not Killing denied claims that the current law was out of date. A statement on its website says: “The law carries this blanket prohibition of helping people kill themselves in order to protect vulnerable people from exploitation and abuse. Any change will debase legal protection for those who are disabled, elderly or otherwise ill.”