I was deeply affected by a recent visit to an exhibition centred around a re-creation of a room at the Dignitas flat near Zurich, Switzerland. This powerful and emotive installation is part of an exploration on the theme of assisted dying ‘Death: is it your right to choose?’ from 23rd January until March 2016 at the Bristol Museum. I went to view this exhibition prior to attending the talk and panel debate on Assisted Dying that same evening.

This exhibition complements Death: the Human Experience exhibition which I previously attended and wrote about.

As it stands, the current law on assisted dying in the UK is that to assist someone to take their own life remains illegal.

So what is Dignitas? It is a not-for-profit organisation founded on the principle ‘To live with dignity – to die with dignity.’ They believe that everyone has the right to make their own decisions about how they want to die. One of the things they do is offer people the opportunity to end their own life. And people, if they are well and able enough, will travel from abroad to check in and receive the ‘medication’ to end their life on the premises. There were testimonies from individuals who had travelled from the UK and other countries to Zurich.

For me, the most moving part of this installation was hearing audios of the last hour and indeed, last few moments, of the individual, their relatives, and staff at Dignitas. There were written scripts available in the installation too. I recommend visiting the exhibition for an insight into the current debate and to ask yourself whether the UK should be considering the alternative in the light of Dignitas’s 30 years’ experience of meeting end of life needs.

The Assisted Dying Panel debate was later that evening at the museum. The debate or discussion was:

Should people have the right to decide how and when they die?

A panel of experts discussed the ethics and legalities of assisted dying and the speakers included:

• Richard Huxtable. Chair. (Professor of Medical Law and Ethics, University of Bristol)
• Lesley Close (accompanied brother John to Dignitas in 2003)
• Silvan Luley (Dignitas)
• Katherine Sleeman (Clinical Lecturer in Palliative care, Kings College, London)
• Havi Carel (Professor of Philosophy, University of Bristol)
• John Troyer (Director Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath)

The debate was heavily oversubscribed, indicating the passion and determination felt by many, on all sides of the debate, for a review of the law. Initially the number attending was set for 80, however the numbers allowed kept getting extended as people were queuing up to get in, the final figure was in the region of 320, and I just about managed to get back in myself.

The discussion started with the Chair giving a definition, and the issues:

‘Assisted dying is the intention of ending of a life of suffering on request with the help of an assistant’.

So the crux of the debate/ discussion was of assisted dying (AD) and does the United Kingdom keep Assisted dying as

A) Keep unlawful
B) Make lawful
C) Keep unlawful but apply law compassionately

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