UK deaths at Dignitas up by 80%

THE number of Britons ending their lives at Dignitas has soared by 80 per cent in the past decade.

As of the end of December, 1,528 people from the UK had travelled to Switzerland to die at Dignitas.

According to figures released by the organisation this number had risen from 821 in 2012 – an increase of 80 per cent.

Under the Suicide Act 1961 helping someone take their own life is punishable with up to 14 years in jail. But campaigners said the numbers were ‘evidence that the ban on assisted dying is failing British families’.

Sarah Wootton, of Dignity in Dying, said: ‘It’s immoral that we are outsourcing compassion to Switzerland... The increase in Dignitas’s latest figures is concrete evidence that Britons are desperate for choice and control over their deaths.’