Dignitas has helped 540 British people die, MPs told

A Dignitas spokesperson said many British people travelled to Switzerland to die because they did not want to die sedated. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

The assisted dying organisation Dignitas has told parliament “it’s about time” to legalise the practice in the UK and make it available alongside palliative care, describing the current rules as “inadequate and incoherent”.

Silvan Luley, a team member at the Swiss organisation, told a House of Commons assisted dying investigation his organisation had helped 540 British people kill themselves – more than one in seven of all deaths it had enabled. The process costs about £10,000.