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Irish Mirror

National

Emma McMenamy

Number of Irish people choosing Switzerland for assisted dying increases 10-fold

Tom Curran Switzerland Exit International Dignitas

The number of people travelling from Ireland to Switzerland for assisted dying has increased 10-fold, a leading Irish campaigner has claimed.

Tom Curran, who is director of the Irish branch of Exit International, said he has been contacted by countless people seeking information on voluntary assisted death.

Mr Curran, whose partner was right to die campaigner Marie Fleming, said he knows of several people planning to travel to Switzerland to end their life in coming months.

Multiple Sclerosis sufferer Marie Fleming was due to travel to Dignitas but cancelled her plans when she realised her family could be prosecuted for aiding her travel there.

She took her case to the High Court in 2012 but judges ruled assisting someone to take their life remained an illegal act. She died a year later.

Mr Curran said sadly legislation has not changed since Marie’s death almost ten years ago, but there has been a huge jump in numbers contacting him and other organisations.

He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “The number of people getting in touch has easily increased tenfold. It is something that people used to not think about as an option.

“You can travel to Switzerland [to Dignitas] with someone, that is not a problem, but if you help them beforehand in Ireland it is seen as a crime.

“Due to that a lot of people are going to Switzerland but are putting down fictitious addresses... the figures are distorted.”

Cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan was a vocal supporter of the right to die campaign right up to her death last November.

Months before her death she urged politicians to give terminally-ill people the right to end their suffering, describing it as her “last wish”.

She said: “I don’t want to be lingering for my kids. Just because you believe something for your own reasons, whether they’re religious or other, you shouldn’t be imposing your beliefs on somebody else.”

Mr Curran said: “Marie had MS and as she put it herself, the MS was taking away her life and it was taking control of her life. She didn’t want a prolonged, drawn out and possibly painful death which can happen a lot with neurological diseases like MS. She didn’t want her grandchildren or people around her to go through it either.”

A spokesperson for Dignitas said: “It’s for the Irish people to decide [whether] to legalise freedom of choice in last matters for themselves and their loved ones.”

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny said the Dying With Dignity Bill 2020 will be discussed by an Oireachtas committee from next month and will likely go to the Dail and Seanad for consideration next year. Under the terms of the proposed legislation, a person can only seek assistance to die if they have a terminal illness which is “incurable, progressive and which cannot be reversed by treatment”.

Mr Kenny said: “It’s important that there is a public debate. If polls are anything to go by, the majority of people are in support of assisted dying. I think there has been a huge shift in the last number of years in relation to this issue. It’s no longer a taboo issue and people want to talk about it.”

However, the Iona Institute is concerned at the proposed Bill and said instead that palliative care should be expanded.

Spokesman David Quinn said: “We have seen what happens in other countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada when it is permitted.

“At first, only the terminally ill are allowed to avail of it, but then it is expanded to other categories, including the chronically ill, and even those with severe mental health problems.

“We note that palliative care doctors are almost always against assisted suicide. They believe the seriously ill or disabled begin to feel pressured to avail of it.”