In a chilling phone call, his advice on ‘popping your clogs’
This is an edited transcript of the conversation between Colin Brewer and the Mail’s undercover reporter, posing as a 35year- old woman with severe depression who wanted to die.
COLIN BREWER: So tell me a bit about yourself? MAIL REPORTER: I’m 35, I’ve battled with depression my whole life. I feel like I’ve tried everything and have come to a point where I know this is the only option for me. CB: The reports I do normally are people with physical conditions.
MR: I feared you might say that. CB: Well it’s not what I’m saying. I have some sympathy. But my advantage is I’ m retired, and I’m not on the medical register, so nobody can tell me what to do. But even when you’re reporting on a purely physical condition a lot of doctors are unwilling for a variety of reasons. I am certainly willing… if you can get to London I’d be willing to see you and at least start on the assessment process. MR: What’s involved in the assessment process? CB: Well initially I’d like to see you and take a full history. You should get as much of your (GP) medical notes as you can. But obviously it’s a good idea if you don’t tell them (your GP) it’s because you’re planning to make an application to Dignitas.
[asks for more details of her condition] CB: OK. I think it’s a very straightforward process [to get your medical notes], just call up your GP. I don’t think you need to give any reason. Certainly it’s not wise to mention Dignitas. If they insist on a reason, you can always say you’re thinking of going abroad or something. And let me know when you’ve got them. Then I’ll get you an appointment and you can come to London. MR: The reason I called today was after reading about this recent case of Jeffrey Spector… CB: Well he had by my standards a fairly straightforward case. We’re talking months. You should not expect any relief from your point of view, very quickly. They will certainly want me to get to know you rather more than just a single consultation and indeed I wouldn’t be happy myself if I just had to do a report of this importance just on the basis of a single interview. So be patient. MR: Do you think realistically I’m wasting my time here? CB: No. I know they [Dignitas] are prepared to do medically assisted suicide for people with chronic psychiatric conditions. It’s a very small part of their patient load, but they have done it. I have limited experience of purely psychiatric cases [of assisted suicide], I am just working on the first one that I’ve come across and if she is successful it would be the first case in Britain.
MR: Would my age be a problem?
CB: How old are you again?
MR: I’m 35. CB: Well, that’s middle life and certainly used to be middle age when people popped their clogs in their 70s. I think if you were 25, people would say you’ve got to give her time to grow up a bit, but I think at 35 there’s a reasonable presumption that if you had a lot of treatment and it hasn’t done much good by then, the prospects of it doing so are not very good. So I don’t think the age is a problem here. If they [Dignitas] thought you had no chance at all, they wouldn’t have suggested you contact me. MR: What is the percentage of non-terminal patients who have successful applications? CB: Non-terminality is not an issue. Someone who has dementia for example – one of the commonest reasons I get involved – which you can see is to some extent a psychiatric condition. There is no particular problem with people that are not terminal. Phone me when you get the notes, then when you’ve got them, I’ll tell you where to post them to.