UK wife and son arrested for arranging visit to Dignitas clinic for husband
A 65-year-old woman from Chichester and her 25-year-old son were arrested recently on suspicion of arranging a trip to Zurich for the woman’s 71-year-old husband.
Dignitas clinic in Zurich
Are British police getting tough on assisted suicide? Although assistance is an offence punishable with up to 14 years in jail, no one accompanying a potential client of the Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas has ever been arrested. But a 65-year-old woman from Chichester and her 25-year-old son were arrested recently on suspicion of arranging a trip to Zurich for the woman’s 71-year-old husband.
Police said that the man was “vulnerable” – which may mean that he is suffering from dementia.
Dignitas caters for foreigners who want to die and about 150 Britons have made use of its services since 1998. The Director of Public Prosecutions has indicated that if the assistance is “wholly motivated by compassion” prosecution is unlikely.
Michael Cook
Creative commons
assisted suicide
Dignitas
UK
- Queensland legalises ‘assisted dying’ - September 19, 2021
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- Dutch doctors cleared to euthanise dementia patients who have advance directives - November 22, 2020
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