Yet another UK national has travelled to Switzerland to receive assisted suicide.

Euthanasia debate has again been reignited in the UK following the death of a 54-year-old British man in Switzerland’s Dignitas clinic.

Jeffrey Spector, a businessman, chose to end his life despite not being terminally ill. Spector was suffering from a spinal tumour, and feared that he would soon suffer paralysis. In an interview just a day before he died, Spector said that he was “jumping the gun”, but asked people “not to judge” him. “My family disagree, but I believe this is in their best interests” he said. In a statement released on Monday, Spector’s family said that he died peacefully on Friday the 22^nd of May: “Jeffrey ended his own life in exactly the manner and at exactly the time he wanted.”

Representatives from both sides were quick to comment on Spector’s death.

Dr Peter Saunders, Campaign Director of Care Not Killing said: “This tragic case illustrates the dangers of legalising assisted suicide or euthanasia in Britain.”

“The vast majority of people with cancer or quadriplegia (which was a risk but not a present reality for this man) actually do not wish to kill themselves but rather want support and care to go on living as comfortably as possible for as long as possible”.

Jane Nicklinson, whose husband Tony died in 2012 days after losing a seven-year High Court battle to be allowed to end his own life legally, said Mr Spector reminded her of her former partner’s plight.

She said: “This man sounds so much like Tony. He did not want to end up in a situation that Tony had to endure every day and I can understand why he did what he did, so well.

But she cautioned: “We have always said that those going to Dignitas go far too early as they have to go whilst they are physically able”.

New dignitas death reignites euthanasia debate in UK
Xavier Symons
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/assisted_suicide_yjhjk7878.jpg
Creative commons
assisted suicide
Dignitas
euthanasia
fear
UK

• Author
• Recent Posts

Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

Latest posts by Xavier Symons (see all)

• Can machines be moral? - March 7, 2021
• Can we synthesise Christianity moral theology with secular bioethics? - November 28, 2020
• Euthanasia polling data may fail to capture people’s considered views - August 15, 2020