Husband and wife die at 'suicide tourist' clinic

A married couple from Britain have killed themselves at a controversial clinic in Zurich, joining the rising number of "suicide tourists" choosing to end their lives in countries with more liberal attitudes to euthanasia.

Robert Stokes, 60, and his wife Jennifer, 53, who were wheelchair bound, are believed to have taken a dose of barbiturates prepared by a doctor for the Swiss group Dignitas.

Mrs Stokes, who neighbours said suffered from diabetes and epilepsy, is thought to have died first. Her husband died within an hour, according to coroner's officials in Britain.

The Swiss authorities confirmed yesterday that a 48-year-old woman from London died in the same week, along with a French national and a German. They did not disclose what conditions they had.

The cases bring to five the number of Britons known to have died at the clinic since October. More terminally ill patients are expected to travel to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal.

Pro-euthanasia campaigners said yesterday that the British authorities had shown a "green light" for those travelling abroad to die. Police said last week that they would not prosecute anyone over the death of a Briton at the clinic earlier this year.

Mr and Mrs Stokes, from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, arrived in Zurich on 31 March and showed a Swiss doctor documents that proved they were terminally ill. In return he provided the "recipe" for the poisonous mixture.

The couple went to a flat where they either had to drink the mixture themselves or turn a switch to start an intravenous drip to remain within legal guidelines. The bodies were returned to Britain with paperwork that did not include a cause of death.

Dignitas, which specialises in the assisted deaths of non-Swiss nationals, charges a £45 registration fee and an annual fee of about £25. It has more than 1,600 people on its books.

The number of inquiries about assisted suicides at the clinic has increased sharply following publicity over previous deaths. They include Reginald Crew, a 74-year-old former Liverpool car worker paralysed from the neck down by motor neurone disease, who died in January and was accompanied to Switzerland by a British television crew. In October last year, a 77-year-old Briton with throat cancer was helped to die, with his son and daughter at his side.

The Swiss authorities have expressed concern about the clinic amid moves to curb the influx of foreigners travelling to Zurich to die.

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society in the UK also expressed disquiet about the Swiss practice, which has few safeguards compared with other countries that allow limited assisted suicide, such as Belgium and the Netherlands and the state of Oregon in the United States.

"Our main worry is that the Government has given a green light to death tourism. People that go should have that choice at home but with safeguards," a spokeswoman said. Assisting a suicide carries a maximum 14-year prison sentence in Britain.

Lord Joffe, who has introduced a private member's Bill allowing assisted suicide, said yesterday that a new law was inevitable, despite the lack of government support. "As the population become more and more supportive of the concept of independence, to make decisions about their deaths as well as their lives, at some stage voluntary euthanasia will be legalised. It's just a question of time," he said.