http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/num...es-9434242
Quote:The number of Brits travelling to Dignitas has slowly risen over the past 15 years as public opinion has swung in favour of assisted suicide.
Eight out of 10 people believe the law should allow people to take their own lives, according to a Populus poll for campaign group Dignity in Dying – yet families still risk prosecution to take their loved ones to the Dignitas house on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland.
Latest statistics reveal 37 Brits used Dignitas in 2015 – up from 29 in the previous year. High-profile cases include Daniel James, 23, of Worcester, who was the youngest UK person to die at Dignitas in 2010 after being paralysed in a rugby accident.
More than 7,000 people, including 996 Brits, were members of Dignitas in 2015 – but director Silvan Luley says only around 14 per cent will go on to commit suicide.
“For most people it’s about having a choice, an emergency way out should they need it,” he says.
“They want to know they have the choice if things become so bad they wish to end their suffering.
“Without that strategy they feel trapped without a choice and that’s when people hang themselves, throw themselves off the cliffs of Dover or throw themselves in front of trains.”
Five years ago Dignitas won a battle in the European Court of Human Rights which ruled everyone should be allowed to decide the manner and time of their death.
