Pair arrested over plans to take pensioner to Swiss suicide clinic
The wife and son of a 71-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of planning to take him to a clinic in Switzerland to end his life.
The man is thought to be in the early stages of dementia.
Police said officers would be carrying out further enquiries after the wife (65) and son (25), both from Chichester, were released on bail.
Officers are investigating if the 71-year-old man has the mental capacity to decide to take his own life.
Statement
A police spokesman said in a statement: “Police have been made aware of suggestions that a man and a woman from West Sussex could be planning to take a vulnerable pensioner to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland so that he can end his life.”
He added that it is an offenceto encourage or assist suicide under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
Police are investigating whether a crime has been committed or would have likely to have been committed had they not intervened.
‘Suicide tourism’
Alarmingly over the past 14 years Dignitas has enabled more than 1,000 people to die and about 150 Britons have chosen to die at its clinic in Zurich.
In England and Wales assisted suicide could result inup to 14 years in prison but in Switzerland it is legal as long as the helper does not personally benefit from the death.
Despite attempts by the Swiss government to reduce ‘suicide tourism’, a majority of voters in Zurich rejected a call to end legalised assisted suicide. A majority also did not back a call to stop foreigners travelling to the country to end their lives.
Disappointment
Care Not Killing, an alliance of pro-life organisations in the UK, is deeply concerned by this trend.
“We are disappointed that voters in Zurich appear to have followed the call of the two major political parties to support the status quo in [the] referendum on assisted suicide after an earlier poll showed that two thirds of Swiss people were concerned about suicide tourism,” said Care Not Killing Director Dr. Peter Saunders.
The arrested man and woman have been bailed until October.
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