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.

He began then to make arrangements to travel the following month to Switzerland where assisted suicide has been legal since 1942 so long as the “assistant” does not profit from the act.

Assisting someone to commit suicide is illegal in Ireland, but it is thought it would be difficult to prove that assistance rendered to the man to help him leave Ireland would constitute an offence.

Gardaí said yesterday they would not investigate unless there was a formal complaint from a citizen of the State. “It would not be our decision to prosecute. It would be unprecedented. It would be a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions,” a spokeswoman said.

She also confirmed that no further progress had been made in the investigation into the assisted suicide of Dublin woman, Rosemary Toole Gilhooley, who contacted maverick American cleric, Reverend George Exoo, to help her in 2002.

Extradition papers were sent to the US over a year ago but so far Rev Exoo has withstood attempts to bring him here to face prosecution.

Professor of Legal Medicine Dr Denis Cusack, however, said no assumptions could be made about the legality of giving even limited assistance that might help someone commit suicide.

“It’s not clear. It raises very interesting questions. Anybody considering setting off down that course would need to be aware of what the law says.”

Mr Minelli claimed yesterday that the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteed Europeans the right to assisted suicide, even where their home countries outlawed it.

However, Donncha O’Connell, lecturer in European Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway, said this argument was rejected by the European Court of Human Rights in 2002 in the case of Diane Petty, a terminally ill British woman who was refused the right to allow her husband help her commit suicide.

“The only authoritative statement from the European Court of Human Rights would indicate that a prohibition on assisted suicide is consistent with the Convention,” he said.

Assisted suicide

Dignitas was set up in Zurich in 1998 and claims around 4,300 members in 52 countries.

It is one of four organisations that provide assisted suicide in Switzerland, where the act is legal, but the only one that offers the service to foreigners.

Its motto is “Live with Dignity, Die with Dignity”. It argues people with terminal or unbearable illness should be allowed to decide when to end their own lives.

Dignitas volunteers meet members on arrival in Zurich, bring them to an apartment and provide sedatives and a lethal dose of barbiturates before notifying the Swiss police. The organisation has been criticised in Switzerland for promoting “suicide tourism”.

Last October, Martin Barry, a young Corkman with advanced multiple sclerosis, revealed he was a member of Dignitas and would use their services if he felt he would otherwise die helpless and in pain.