The Britons who made their final journey to Dignitas clinic | Assisted dying

Since 2002, the clinic run by the assisted dying organisation Dignitas in Switzerland has been chosen by more than 500 Britons to end their lives. Here we look at some of those Britons who made their final journey to the facility.

First UK citizens to die at Dignitas

In 2002, a terminally ill cancer sufferer became the first Briton to take his own life at the assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. The 77-year-old had throat cancer.

But it was the former docker Reg Crew who was the first named British person to have publicly travelled to die at Dignitas in January 2003. The 74-year-old had suffered from motor neurone disease for more than four years.

Craig Ewert

A former university professor with motor neurone disease, Ewert, allowed his death at the clinic in 2006 to be filmed and later shown in Britain in a documentary. Ewert, a 59-year-old American father of two who moved to the UK having taken early retirement, travelled there from his home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

‘Mrs Z’

The woman publicly referred to as “Mrs Z” was at the heart of a landmark court case to determine whether she could travel to Dignitas with the help of her husband of 45 years. The 66-year-old had an incurable brain condition called cerebellar ataxia.

In 2004, she went to the high court over attempts to prevent her from dying at Dignitas. Her local authority brought the case after learning of her plans.

A judge decided not to frustrate her wishes to die abroad and lifted a ban on her husband, also 66, a former insurance clerk, taking her abroad in the first case of its kind.

The woman was accompanied to Zurich by her husband and died on 1 December 2004.

Daniel James

At 23, James, who had played rugby for England as a teenager, became the youngest Briton to die at the clinic in September 2008 after being paralysed from the chest down in a rugby training accident.

West Mercia police initially investigated his death but three months later the director of public prosecutions announced that no action would be taken against his parents as it was not in the public interest, “although there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prosecution”.

His parents said James, a tetraplegic, felt his body had become a prison and he lived in fear and loathing of his daily life. His death led to widespread debate as he was not suffering from a life-threatening condition.

Sir Edward Downes and Joan Downes

In 2009, one of Britain’s most respected conductors, Sir Edward Downes, and his wife, Joan, ended their lives together at the clinic. Sir Edward, 85, who was knighted in 1991, was almost blind and his 74-year-old wife was his full-time carer. He had a long and distinguished career with the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House, and conducted the inaugural performance at Sydney Opera House. The couple’s children, Caractacus and Boudicca, said their parents had “died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing”.

Robert and Jennifer Stokes

In 2003, Robert and Jennifer Stokes from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, died in Switzerland after contacting Dignitas. Stokes, 59, had epilepsy and his 53-year-old wife had diabetes and back problems. Both had depression but neither was terminally ill. Family members demanded that the clinic be closed down.

Peter and Penelope Duff

Peter and Penelope Duff were the first terminally ill British couple to have an assisted suicide in 2009. Before Christmas 2008, they invited guests for a drinks party in an elegant Georgian townhouse overlooking the city of Bath. Their guests did not know that both hosts – he was 80, and she was 70 – were terminally ill and that they were in effect saying goodbye. In February 2009 they died at the clinic after doctors told them their cancers were incurable.