Membership of the Swiss assisted dying organisation Dignitas among UK residents has risen by 24% during 2023, reaching 1,900 people, as a bill allowing assisted dying is laid before the Scottish parliament. Britons now form the second largest national group registered with the Zurich-based organisation, behind Germans, who can obtain help to end their lives at home following a 2020 court ruling.
The increase has been attributed partly to growing media coverage and the ageing of the baby boomer generation, which Dignitas said is "used to self-determination and making individual choices for their own life which of course includes the end of life". The organisation also said that the UK government and parliament "have been dragging their feet for a long time" and that people reach out to bodies where they feel taken more seriously. Labour leader Keir Starmer has said he would allow a free vote on assisted dying if he becomes prime minister.
New figures show that 40 people from the UK took their lives at Dignitas in 2023, the highest number since 2019. This brings to 571 the total number of Britons who have died with the organisation's help since it was founded in 1998. Among the new members is TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who has lung cancer and has called for legalisation in the UK. Assisted dying remains a criminal offence in the UK, though it is legal in several other countries and 10 US states.
The bill being published on Thursday would, if approved by the Scottish parliament, allow terminally ill adults in Scotland to receive help to end their own lives within the law. It will be scrutinised in committee before an initial vote. Opponents of legalisation, such as the campaign group Care Not Killing, argue that it could lead to vulnerable people being coerced. The group's spokesperson, Alistair Thompson, said the membership surge was partly due to a perception that the NHS was in crisis and that palliative care was not always available.
Paola Marra, a 53-year-old London resident with terminal bowel cancer, took her life at Dignitas last week. Before travelling alone to Switzerland, she told the Guardian: "I think it's really unfair that I can't do it here." Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: "It's clear that under the blanket ban on assisted dying we are outsourcing compassion to Switzerland. Paola Marra, who so powerfully shared her story to help all those who come after her, was forced to die alone in a foreign country for fear of incriminating her loved ones." Esther Rantzen congratulated the Scottish parliament on tabling the bill, saying the current law is "cruel, complicated and causes terrible suffering to vulnerable people".
