This is Prospect’s rolling coverage of the assisted dying debate. This page will be updated with the latest from our correspondent, Mark Mardell. Read the rest of our coverage here
14th April
If the debate wasn’t heated enough already, MPs can expect some intense lobbying when they return to parliament after the Easter break. The report stage and third reading of the assisted dying bill will now take place much later than expected—in just under five weeks’ time, on 16th May.
New figures highlight the growing number of people from the United Kingdom seeking to travel to Switzerland to end their lives. Dignitas has long been a target for those opposed to assisted dying, but this data has been seized on by those impatient for a change in the law.
UK-based membership of the Swiss assisted dying organisation Dignitas has grown by 50 per cent over the past five years. Before anyone can travel to Dignitas in Switzerland, they must first become a member of the non-profit organisation.
In 2024, there were 2,231 UK members—up from 1,430 in 2019.
The campaign group My Death, My Decision, alongside Humanists UK, says this shows MPs must stop exporting compassion and instead legislate for safe and legal assisted dying in the UK as soon as possible.
Graham Winyard, director of My Death, My Decision, said: “Every year, more people are joining Dignitas because our politicians are refusing to act. These aren’t just numbers, they’re real people, many of them terminally ill, who want control over how and when they die. The UK’s current ban on assisted dying is cruel, outdated, and unsustainable. It’s time Parliament listened to the overwhelming public support for change and gave people the right to die with dignity, here at home.”
Richy Thompson, director of public affairs and policy at Humanists UK, added: “The surge in UK-based Dignitas membership reflects a growing number of people who feel the current law does not meet their needs at the end of life. These are individuals who are suffering and making deeply personal decisions in the absence of a legal, safeguarded option at home. Sadly, with the delay to the latest possible implementation of England and Wales’s bill, more people look set to join them.”
Despite the rise in membership of Dignitas, the number of British people who actually travelled to die at their Swiss clinic in 2024 was slightly down—37, compared to 40 the previous year. British membership was the second highest in the world.
What’s striking is the lack of correlation between membership numbers and the actual number of people who die. Germany, for instance, has the highest membership globally—4,790—but only five Germans died at Dignitas last year, a dramatic drop from 84 in 2017. France, which sits behind the UK in third place with 1,994 members, saw 57 deaths.
Outside Europe, the United States has the highest number of members—also 1,994 and with 57 deaths. The next highest was Canada, with just 175 members and only one death. Australia had 170 members and two deaths; China, 138 members and six deaths.
What to make of these figures? It seems to me that most people choose to become members as the national debate around assisted dying gathers pace. It seems there’s a kind of timeline—interest in the possibility of assisted dying increases as a more permissive legal framework begins to emerge, but understandably enough, when assisted dying is legal in the home country far fewer choose to travel to die.
