Suicides

The current law is unsafe. It puts dying people in danger, when they most need support and protection.

Often dying people feel they cannot talk openly about assisted dying because it is illegal . This means a dying person can feel their only option is to take matters into their own hands. The law forces them to face a lonely and perhaps violent death, in secret, through fear of implicating their family in a crime.

Last Resort: The hidden truth about how dying people end their own lives in the UK

Our ground breaking research, Last Resort: The hidden truth about how dying people take their own lives in the UK, for the first time brought together data from multiple sources, suggesting that between 300 and 650 terminally ill people take their own lives in the UK each year.  With between 3,000 and 6,500 attempting to do so

In 2017, we published The True Cost: How the UK outsources death to Dignitas. In 2019, we published The Inescapable Truth: How seventeen people a day will suffer as they die. This final report – Last Resort – examines the third way in which the current law fails dying people.

It reveals the stories of those who feel they have no other option but to take matters into their own hands. It explores their motivations and lays bare the repercussions for those who are left behind. It looks at the ways in which the police struggle to enforce the law and examines how we might quantify how many dying people in the UK take their own lives each year.

Do you have a story to tell?

Telling personal stories can be extremely powerful. We are building a network of people willing to share their experience to help us strengthen the case for law change.

We know stories are very personal, so rest assured that we will not publicise anything until we have spoken to you and you’ve given your final approval.

If you are willing to share your experience please let us know using the form below.