'CONCRETE' PROOF BRITONS WANT A RIGHT TO DIE CHOICE

Record numbers forced to sign up for Dignitas to end their lives

- Hanna Geissler

RECORD numbers of Britons are signing up with Dignitas, a trend campaigners describe as "concrete evidence" that people are crying out for greater endof-life choice.

The UK accounted for some 331 new registrations with the Swiss clinic last year more than any other nation.

A total 2,231 UK citizens were members at the end of 2024, up by more than half from 1,430 five years ago.

The rise comes as MPs and MSPs consider landmark bills that aim to legalise assisted dying in Scotland, England and Wales for terminally ill adults.

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of campaign group Dignity in Dying, said: "The increase in Dignitas figures in recent years is concrete evidence that dying Britons are calling out for choice at the end of their lives.

"Without the option of assisted dying in their home country, terminally ill people are having to scrape together the £15,000 this now costs to have an assisted death overseas.

"They face the cruel choice of leaving their home and loved ones behind or putting them at risk of prosecution for accompanying them." Family and friends who go with loved ones to Dignitas may face questioning by police when they return to the UK, although no one has ever been prosecuted in such a case.

Founded in 1998, Dignitas helps people who are terminally ill or living with severe physical or mental illnesses to die with medical assistance.

Its eligibility criteria are more extensive than those proposed in Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's England and Wales bill.

It proposes to legalise assisted dying only for terminally ill adults who are judged to have less than six months to live.