The lawyer behind the controversial Swiss clinic for assisted suicide has suggested that people should be allowed to choose to die even if they are not terminally ill.
Ludwig Minelli, founder of the clinic Dignitas in Switzerland where 42 Britons have travelled to end their lives, was reported as saying that people who have been suffering from long-term depression should be allowed to choose to end their lives. "The idea of a terminal illness as a condition for assisted suicide is a British obsession," he told the Sunday Times.
His comments will reignite the debate about assisted suicide ahead of the second reading of a private member's bill next month which would legalise it in the UK. Crossbench peer Lord Joffe's bill proposes its legalisation for people who are certain to die within six months, suffering from unbearable pain and who are judged to be mentally competent.
Mr Minelli, a human rights lawyer, said: "Even those suffering from Alzheimer's will have lucid moments in which they may choose to die once a certain point has been reached, such as when they can no longer recognise their children. We would never assist the death of someone with acute depression, because the depression is a symptom of the illness. But if somebody comes after 10 or 12 years of depression and says that they do not want to prolong their life under such conditions, then we might help them die."
Pro-assisted dying campaigners said that such a move would be unlikely in the UK where it is illegal to counsel someone on how to commit suicide. Mark Slattery of Dignity in Dying, said: "Assisted dying should be a decision taken by people who are competent of mind. They can't be in the state of mind - temporary or permanent - that robs them of competent decision-making. So they can't be clinically depressed, suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's."
Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South East and chairman of the Care Not Killing alliance, said: "People recover from mental illness - that's certainly not the time to be making a decision about whether to live or die."
