Daily Mail
Banned British doctor who approves Dignitas suicides secretly recorded advising how patients can ‘pop their clogs’ even when they are not terminally ill
By Lucy Osborne and Katherine Faulkner and Paul Bentley
May 29 2015
British psychiatrist Colin Brewer
The clinic is telling patients to get a report from a controversial psychiatrist struck off nine years ago for serious misconduct. They say that Colin Brewer – who has helped at least 12 patients to die at Dignitas – is prepared to support cases even where the patient is not terminally ill.
An undercover Mail reporter posing as a young woman with mental health problems was advised by staff at the clinic that Brewer ‘should be her first try’ because he was ‘open minded’.
And when she approached the psychiatrist, he said he would be prepared to assist her in her bid to kill herself, suggesting suicide would be a ‘relief’ for her.
In a shockingly casual discussion of her wish to die at just 35, he reassured her that her age would be no obstacle. He reassured her that in the past when many people ‘popped their clogs’ in their seventies, she would have been in her ‘middle life’.
Brewer also advised her it was ‘not wise’ to tell her GP that she planned to go to Dignitas. The revelations will lead to renewed questions over the practices of the secretive Swiss suicide clinic – which has now helped 273 Britons to die. The Mail can also reveal:
– Dignitas is facing a major criminal probe into claims it is profiting illegally from the deaths of its patients,
– A former nurse at Dignitas claims she was told to loot valuables from those who had committed suicide,
– The apartment where Dignitas patients are sent to die is now situated in a shed on an industrial estate – directly above a café selling burgers and hot dogs,
– Some patients have had to kill themselves in cars at the roadside because there were no premises available.
It emerged this week that a father-of-three, Jeffrey Spector, 54, had killed himself at a Dignitas clinic last Friday after sharing a final meal in Switzerland with his family.
The actions of Mr Spector – who was not terminally ill but feared an inoperable tumour growing on his spine would leave him paralysed – have fuelled fierce debate about right-to-die laws in Britain.
As part of an investigation into the practices of the clinic, an undercover Mail reporter approached Dignitas this week to ask whether it would consider her application for assisted suicide. The results reveal how chillingly simple the process is for Britons – even for those with non-terminal conditions – to arrange their death through Dignitas.
The reporter said she was a woman of 35 with mental illness, and wanted to end her life. In response, an adviser spoke to the reporter on the phone for 20 minutes giving a step-by-step guide to arranging her death with Dignitas – by obtaining medical assessments, then travelling to Switzerland for final approval. The adviser explained that anyone applying to die simply needs a written assessment from an ‘expert’ in the UK stating the patient is of ‘sound mind’.