Last Rights by Sarah Wootton

Author:Sarah Wootton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The other injustice we have created is a financial one, leading to a discriminatory two-tier system of dying. The average cost of an assisted death in Switzerland is around £10,000. Sixty-six per cent of people would be willing to break the law to help a loved one die in Switzerland if that were their wish, yet only 25 per cent of people would be able to afford it.31 The vast majority of people are being denied a peaceful death simply because of their socio-economic status.

In 2015, two sisters tried to raise money to enable their mother, who had motor neurone disease, to have the death she wanted in Switzerland. The group Care Not Killing reported them to the police, who advised the daughters to stop trying to raise funds because it would leave them susceptible to prosecution. Ultimately, Dignitas offered the woman in question a reduced fee after an anonymous donation was made to them. Her daughters, still fearing interference from the police, told reporters that they ‘would stay out of Britain for a while’ in order to have space to grieve.32

Even if somebody has a spare £10,000 and has people around them who are not deterred by the threat of criminal prosecution, an assisted death in Switzerland may not be possible. Terminal illnesses often lead to a rapid decline in a person’s physical capabilities. For many dying people, a short trip to the hospital needs planning and time. Even without travel restrictions, it is simply not an option for some people to get a taxi to an airport, board a commercial plane, arrive in a unfamiliar (and expensive) foreign country, check into a hotel, have an appointment with a doctor, then get another taxi the next day to the facility where the assisted death will take place. For many of those who are desperate to control the manner and timing of their death, this journey is simply impossible.

As a result, many people end their lives much sooner than they might otherwise choose to. It means that people are forced into an unenviable decision of finding the moment that strikes the right balance of maximising time at home with their loved ones without risking their last bit of freedom slipping away from them.

Once a decision is made, it’s not possible to just book the next flight and turn up at Dignitas’s door. This is a procedure that needs weeks if not months of organising. There are legal obligations that organisations in Switzerland must meet. This means they need paperwork: birth certificates, marriage certificates, dental records, medical reports. These can be difficult to obtain and doctors are understandably cautious about doing anything that looks as though they might be encouraging or helping an assisted death in any way. Current guidance provided to doctors about what they can and can’t do to help someone lacks clarity. Many people fall at this hurdle. For those who do manage to gather these documents, it adds to the significant emotional turmoil, as one of our

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