Morning:
6°c
Briton is helped to die at Swiss clinic
Felix Allen8 Dec 2008
DOCTORS from a euthanasia clinic held secret talks at Heathrow airport with a London pensioner before helping him die last week, the Standard has learned.
A 90-year-old man named only as Chris - who was not terminally ill-died on Friday at Ex International, in Berne, after travelling to the Swiss capital with his wife on Tuesday.
He is thought to be only the second Briton to die at the clinic, which until recently did not accept people from non-German-speaking countries. Chris, whose surname has not been revealed as he wanted privacy for his widow, had been planning to kill himself for about two years.
He arrived in Britain in 1938 after fleeing Nazi Austria and went on to teach physics and maths in Newcastle and later Birmingham University.
After deciding to end his life because of his deteriorating health, he met leading figures behind the Swiss clinic at Heathrow - after they attended a meeting with British assisted-suicide campaigners in the summer last year.
The airport meeting was arranged by Chris's friend, the voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr Michael Irwin, who had been due to accompany the pensioner to Berne but pulled because of illness.
He said today: "I hosted a lunch at my home at which the two main people met with some campaigners here in Britain.When they went back to Heathrow they met with Chris because they knew he was planning an assisted suicide."
Dr Irwin, a retired doctor from Surrey, said Chris, an active campaigner for assisted suicide for many years, attended a meeting of the Friends At The End pressure group three weeks before his death.
He said: "Chris was a wonderful man, a very intellectual and independent character. This is what he wanted. I have been a witness at three assisted suicides at the Dignitas clinic and it is a very dignified and peaceful departure.
"If the law was changed in the UK, determined individuals like Chris would not have to travel abroad - they could stay alive longer here instead of making the journey while they are still able to do so."
Chris was suffering from a neurological disorder that led to frequent bouts of extreme dizziness. He had survived cancer earlier in life but did not have a terminal condition.
Helping a person commit suicide is illegal in Britain, though not in Switzerland. Dr Irwin said he had been contacted by officers from the Met and Surrey police but refused to give Chris's full name or which London borough he lived in. A Scotland Yard spokesman would not comment on the case but said: "Where there is a complaint or evidence of a crime we will investigate as a matter of course."
Ex International, run by theologian Peter Widmer, confirmed it had helped Chris end his life. The organisation says it is carrying out a Christian service by helping those with a terminal or incurable illness or an "unacceptable handicap", which is how Chris viewed his condition.
The clinic, established in 1996, charges about £1,000 less than the better known Dignitas in Zurich, which has helped about 100 Britons commit suicide.
Reader views (1)
When is this country going to accept that we are going to want to die this way, by choice, instead of suffering a sometimes slow and indeterminate death.
I believe Chris did the absolutely right thing for himself and shouldn't have had to leave Britain to die with dignity.
- D. A., Torquay, Devon, 08/12/2008 20:39
Report abuse
