Group may have aided other Irish deaths

OTHER Irish people may have used a controversial Swiss “right to die” group to commit suicide, the group’s leader revealed yesterday as he confirmed that a disabled Irishman ended his life in Switzerland last November.

Ludwig Minelli, head of the voluntary group, Dignitas, refused to discuss the case which involved a man in his 30s who had suffered severe injuries in an accident. But, when asked if the man was the only Irish person to have availed of the assisted suicide services provided by Dignitas, Mr Minelli, a lawyer, replied: “I don’t think so.”

The man, who was wheelchair-bound, met with Mr Minelli last October when Mr Minelli was in Ireland to take part in a debate on legalising euthanasia hosted by the Irish Council for Bioethics at University College Dublin.