Cost of journey for assisted dying in Switzerland skyrockets to £15k, intensifying harm caused by UK ban
- Price of only safe, legal assisted dying option for terminally ill Brits surges 50% in just 5 years, Dignity in Dying reveals today.
- Major new report brings together evidence of multiple harms UK’s ban on assisted dying inflicts on dying people and their families.
- Westminster facing mounting pressure to act, as majority of British public demand change and bills move forward in devolved administrations
The average cost of travelling abroad for an assisted death in Switzerland has increased by £5,000 – a staggering 50% in the past 5 years. This option is out of reach for the majority of people in England and Wales. In the absence of safeguarded choice in this country hundreds of terminally ill people every year resort to taking their own lives at home and thousands suffer as they die despite the best efforts of end-of-life care.
A new report out today (Saturday 16 September 2023) by Dignity in Dying, the UK’s leading campaign for a change in the law on assisted dying, reveals that the average cost for a terminally ill person travelling to a specialist Swiss centre to die on their own terms now sits at £15,000 – a rise of £5,000 since 2018¹. Research commissioned by Dignity in Dying reveals that this cost would be unaffordable for almost two-thirds (63%) of people in England and Wales, should they need it.
Assisted dying is a legal option in Switzerland for residents and foreign nationals, including Brits, under strict circumstances and subject to a rigorous application process and safeguards, while the choice is banned in all forms across the British Isles.
Over half (57%) of people in England and Wales have seen a loved one suffer at the end of life, new research has also found, with four in 10 (42%) believing they would have considered an assisted death had it been a legal option for them in the UK.
The report’s findings increase the growing pressure on MPs to bring an end to the UK’s harmful ban on assisted dying and introduce the type of strictly safeguarded, compassionate law for terminally ill people that exists in many other parts of the world, including in all states in Australia, across New Zealand and parts of the US.
Nearly 8 in 10 people (78%) in England and Wales say they would support the introduction of a law that would enable terminally ill, mentally competent adults this choice.
This comes as the Health and Social Care Select Committee prepares to report on the first ever Commons inquiry into assisted dying, launched in December, while separate bills are already making progress in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
James Johnson, a 32-year-old former Police Officer and Control Room Supervisor, and stepfather of two from Hampshire, was unable to accompany his mother when she decided to travel to Dignitas, a Swiss assisted dying organisation, in 2019. A nurse for over 40 years, she was terminally ill with vasculitis, a condition that attacks the vital organs. Accompanying or assisting her could have risked James’s livelihood and the possibility of a maximum prison term of 14 years under the 1961 Suicide Act – the law that bans assisted dying in all forms in England and Wales.
James said:
“My mum was a strong woman, but her illness left her with agonising symptoms that palliative care could not help. She was not wealthy, but she had to spend her life savings just to have control over her death. This option should not be behind a paywall, but under the UK’s current law, it is.
“The memory of saying goodbye to my mum will always haunt me. Standing there with tears in my eyes, fighting desperately against the urge to run after her down the road, to hug her again, to join her on her final journey. But I couldn’t.
“No other family should be forced into the desperate situation that the current law put us in. If assisted dying had been an option for my mum at home, we could have spent the last few months of her life without the worry of how she was going to die. She could have died in her own bed with me holding her hand, not in secret or alone, spending thousands in the process.”
Sarah Wootton, Chief Executive at Dignity in Dying, said:
“For years, Switzerland has been used as a sticking plaster by lawmakers reluctant to challenge the status quo here in the UK, despite it being an arduous journey which only a privileged few could afford. Now, with rising costs compounding the difficulties dying people face, MPs cannot ignore this problem any longer.
“There is now evidence from all over the world that assisted dying laws are popular and work well. If Westminster chooses to continue to ignore this evidence, MPs should be well aware that voters will not. The vast majority of the public, wherever they live and whoever they vote for, want politicians to stop blocking this change, so that our dying people can benefit from full choice at the end of life.
“MPs must bring forward this debate as a matter of urgency, and end the intolerable suffering the ban inflicts on dying people and their loved ones with every day that Westminster drags its heels.”
Dignity in Dying’s report – Time for Choice: The truth about the UK’s ban on assisted dying –for the first time brings together existing evidence plus brand new research and polling on how the UK’s lack of a legal, safeguarded option of assisted dying causes significant harm to dying people and their families every day. It exposes how the current law is:
- Unsafe. Up to 650 dying people end their own lives in the UK every year. These deaths are often violent and lonely.
- Unfair. 17 people a day suffer as they die because palliative care, no matter how good, cannot relieve all suffering all of the time.
- Unregulated. More than 630 dying Brits have travelled to Switzerland for an assisted death. This option is not available to everyone, and the law offers no protection to individuals or loved ones who provide support.
The report compares powerful real-life stories of dying people in the UK with their counterparts in Australia and the US, where assisted dying laws gave them the ability to control the manner and timing of their deaths within robust legal frameworks.
The report also includes, for the first time, data from NHS Trusts in England and Wales documenting suicides and suicide attempts among people receiving specialist palliative care in hospitals.
This data shows that, despite the outstanding palliative care offered by hospitals and hospices across the country, there is an urgent need for the safeguards that an assisted dying law would provide.
Time for Choice: The truth about the UK’s ban on assisted dying can be viewed and downloaded at https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/timeforchoice
*ENDS*
For further information or interviews with people with personal stories, representatives of Dignity in Dying or parliamentarians, please contact Will Harris will@the-boardwalk.co.uk.
