There is an article in today’s Times (26th September) about Ruth and Michael Posner who recently travelled to Switzerland for an Assisted Voluntary Death.
They were 96 and 97 respectively.
Their chosen facility was Pegasos. Everything was handled well and their AVDs seem to have been quite straightforward. However, in this morning’s London Times, a friend is quoted as saying “the Dignitas clinic in Zurich would not help because they did not have a doctor’s certificate that they had less than six months to live.” This may have been an accurate quote but the information it contains is wrong. Our team checked with Dignitas : Dignitas does not require a “six months to live” opinion and there is no such provision in Swiss Law..
The well-established wording of the Dignitas criteria is:
“Anyone suffering from an illness which will lead inevitably to death, or anyone with an unendurable disability, who wants voluntarily to put an end to their life and suffering can, as a member of DIGNITAS, request the Association to help them with accompanied suicide”.
They were an elderly couple who had led very full lives. Ruth was a Holocaust survivor who became an actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
