derroiciones strikes back. revenge of the peepo

Mentally ill people ‘have as much right to assisted dying as the terminally ill’

Official from Dignitas, the Swiss euthanasia group, tells MPs ‘it’s about time’ that the UK legalised the practice

People suffering with mental health problems have just as much right to die as those who are physically sick, an assisted suicide group has said.

Silvan Luley, a team member from Dignitas, gave evidence to MPs as part of their controversial inquiry into assisted dying, which is currently illegal in the UK.

Mr Luley said that “it’s about time” that the UK legalises the practice, describing it as “the last human right” and telling the Commons health and social care committee that “it’s happening anyway”.

Dignitas, whose slogan is “To live with dignity, to die with dignity”, was founded in 1998 and provides physician-assisted suicide to people suffering with terminal or severe physical or mental illness.

Mr Luley revealed that his organisation has helped 540 people from the UK take their own lives in 20 years – a figure which accounts for more than one in seven of all the deaths it has enabled.

The process costs about £10,000, but there are grants, reductions and fee exemptions for people who cannot afford to pay.
‘Nobody needs to prove they are competent’

Speaking via video link from Switzerland, Mr Luley told MPs that Swiss law was made clear in the European Court of Human Rights in 2011, in that “a person who is able to make up their mind accordingly has the freedom and right to decide on the time and manner of their own ending in life”.

He added: “If you speak to experts in the field, you will see it’s a wide-held misconception or even prejudice that people who have some sort of mental illness are not competent.

“But the law in Switzerland, and also by the way in the UK, says that everyone is assumed to have capacity [...] Nobody needs to prove that they are competent, but the other way around.

“The starting point is people are competent and people have the right to decide about their end of life.”

Asked about whether people who are mentally ill have the capacity to make such a decision, he replied: “Nobody needs to prove that they are competent, but the other way around.”
Serious cases would be ‘investigated’

Mr Luley said that those with chronic severe depression or delusions, for example, would need “investigating” as cases that could potentially impair legal capacity.

For example, those people would need to see a psychiatrist to thoroughly assess whether they could be treated for it, and whether their wish to die was based on “long-standing suffering”.

Only then would they be granted a “green light” for a prescription for a drug which would render them unconscious in about three or four minutes, and that people died on after about 30 or 45 minutes later.

Mr Luley said: “Our aim is to become unnecessary. If the UK makes a law that allows people who have access to the last human right – and the best thing would be to come as close to the Swiss model as possible – then no one from the UK would ever have to come to Dignitas in Switzerland again.

“540 people have done over the last 20 years, and your country was one of the first in the world to have a discussion legalising it 80 years ago.

“I think people in the UK would be happy to have the same choice, the same last human right as they have in Switzerland and then Dignitas will disappear, certainly from the UK.”

According to the Suicide Act 1961, it is a criminal offence to encourage or assist in the suicide of a person. However, Crown Prosecution Service guidelines state that charges are less likely if the victim came to a clear and informed decision of their own accord and the suspect was wholly motivated by compassion.

The inquiry, which held its fourth session on Tuesday, has already heard from those for and against the practice. Opponents warned that it could be exploited by people to abuse the vulnerable, while supporters claimed it relieves suffering for those in dire distress and pain.