The first-ever national coalition for assisted dying, made up of a cross-section of campaigners including doctors and nurses, has formed.
This Assisted Dying Coalition will campaign for the legal recognition of the right to die for individuals who have a clear and settled wish to end their life and who are terminally ill or incurably suffering.The Coalition is made up of six organisations: End of Life Choices Jersey, Friends at the End, Humanist Society Scotland, Humanists UK, and My Death, My Decision.
The Coalition’s launch coincides with the release of new figures that show that since the UK Parliament last considered assisted dying laws in 2015, more than one citizen per week (233 people), were forced to make the heartbreaking journey to travel to Switzerland to end their life.The Coalition says thousands more that might want an assisted death don’t have the financial or physical means to travel to Switzerland. The figures also reveal that almost 1,500 UK citizens have a paid membership with an assisted dying organisation in Switzerland, highlighting the growing desperation of many looking to foreign countries to give them peace of mind because the UK denies them choice. It costs on average ?10,000 per person to access the services of a Swiss clinic.
The group is also backed by activist Paul Lamb. Paul, who is paralysed from the neck down, took his right to die case to the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights after Tony and Jane Nicklinsons case failed.
Read what the organisations self have to say about it, at the page of humanism.org.uk
The new coalition has a website, emailadress and logo:
website: http://assisteddying.org.uk/
e-mail: secretariat@assisteddying.org.uk