Requirements
The fees to be paid
“It is indeed expensive but Switzerland is an expensive place. They rely on medical professionals and are all run on a not-for-profit basis”
Prices below displayed in Swiss Franc (CHF) unless specified:
| DIGNITAS | LIFECIRCLE | PEGASOS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preparation and assessment of your request. | 4,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| Two personal medical consultations @ 500 CHF each | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Completion of medical procedure (i.e. the AVD itself) | 2,500 | 3,000 | 3,300 |
| Swiss Registry Office fees (usually provided by the AVD provider) | 500 | 500 | 550 |
| Funeral director and cremation services | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,150 |
| TOTAL (net of VAT) | 10,500 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Swiss VAT @ 8.0% | 840 | 800 | 800 |
| TOTAL including VAT | 11,340 | 10,800 | 10,800 |
| CONVERSION TO £ STERLING @ 1.11 – as at 23rd August 2023 | £10,220 | £9,750 | £9,750 |
For fairly understandable reasons, these fees and costs have to be paid in advance (!) Payments by credit card are not welcomed. Electronic bank transfers are preferred.
They are all, also, separate payments and will be invoiced separately.
All three centres are conscious that these costs represent a heavy financial burden for most of their members to pay. This does not allow them much flexibility, however, in deciding what to charge – most of their total bill is paid to external third party professionals. Lifecircle has been able to offer very substantial cost reductions to four members whose financial circumstances were very tight and whose conditions had become unbearable. Pegasos also hopes to be able to do the same thing in the future.
Dignitas can make a reduction of their fees “for members who live under modest circumstances” but any such arrangement clearly needs to be discussed and agreed with them beforehand.
The similarity of their fee levels is understandable. They all face similar costs. The work involved in preparing an AVD for individuals from abroad in very time-consuming. A court judgement has confirmed that such levels are acceptable and do not represent the promotion of “selfish motives”.
It is worth noting that these costs and fees do include the issue of an International Death Certificate, the cremation and the transfer of your ashes back to the UK. Many deaths in the UK are followed by a cremation so, wherever you had died, that element of cost would have been incurred anyway.
The fee for the “preparation and assessment of your request” will need to be paid up-front and is often therefore referred to as a “deposit”. If, for circumstances beyond your control, a successful provisional green light cannot be followed by the full end-of-life procedure then Lifecircle and Pegasos will return the deposit to you. It is likely that Dignitas would seek to do the same.
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