About 160 Britons have died at Dignitas, about one in six of the clients of the Swiss suicide clinic in Zurich. What is it like?

About 160 Britons have died at Dignitas,
about one in six of the clients of the Swiss suicide clinic in Zurich. What is
it like? After the suicide of Peter Sweetman was broadcast on the BBC recently, there has been a lot of interest. London’s Daily
Mail – whose specialty is first person narratives, rather than detached
commentary – interviewed the daughter of a 74-year-old woman who died there in
2009.

Rona Royle was diagnosed with motor neurone disease early in the year and
after researching the disease on the internet, decided to end her life at
Dignitas. She was accompanied by her daughter Karen,
her husband, Jim, who was suffering from dementia, and Karen’s partner.

The image Karen
and her partner David Sweetman cannot erase from their minds is of a ‘blue tin
shed’ on a barren industrial estate, with no views, just a scrubby patch of
garden littered with cigarette butts.

Inside, the
prefabricated structure was equally Spartan, with no decorations apart from two
roses, an angel-shaped candle and a silver-winged candle holder that the
Royles, at Rona’s request, had brought with them.

‘That vision of
what was little more than a blue tin shed will stay with me for the rest of my
life,’ says David, a decorator.

‘It reminded me
of a gas chamber. I felt like I was taking Rona to her execution.

Rona’s suicide split the family. Her son
David could not accept the decision and is now estranged from Karen. Jim was
completely befuddled by what happened. He died of cancer several months later. “Compared
with Mum, Dad had the better death, without a doubt,’ says Karen. ‘Although his
body was riddled with cancer, he died peacefully at home with us.’” ~ Daily
Mail, June 18

Michael Cook
assisted suicide
Dignitas

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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