Sussex Police arrest Chichester pair over Dignitas claim

A man and a woman have been arrested over claims they could be planning to take a vulnerable pensioner to end his life at Switzerland's Dignitas centre.

They have been questioned on suspicion of encouraging or assisting a suicide.

Officers have asked for an assessment of the "vulnerable" 71-year-old man's mental capacity to determine how able he is to make his own decisions.

Sussex Police said the man, 25 and the woman, 65, both from the Chichester area, had been bailed until October.

The force said officers would be carrying out further inquiries.

'Scrutiny of motives'

In a statement, a police spokesman said: "Police have been made aware of suggestions that a man and a woman from West Sussex could be planning to take a vulnerable pensioner to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland so that he can end his life."

He said it was an offence to encourage or assist suicide under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

Officers were investigating whether any crime had been committed or was likely to be committed if they did not take action, he added.

In 2010, Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC clarified the legal position on assisted suicide.

Fresh guidelines placed closer scrutiny on suspects'motives, and whether they had acted "wholly compassionately" and not for financial reasons.

However, Mr Starmer made it clear the advice did not represent a change in the law and did not cover so-called mercy killings.

The 2010 guidelines were the result of a case brought by Debbie Purdy, a terminally ill woman, who in 2009 won a ruling from the Law Lords requiring the director of public prosecutions to set out whether her husband would be committing an offence if he accompanied her to Dignitas to end her life.

In 2012, MPs backed the guidelines.

'Suicide tourism'

Assisting suicide remains a criminal offence in England Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but individual circumstances in each case are now more likely to be taken into account.

In 2011 Zurich voters voted against a ban on foreigners travelling to Switzerland to die

Over the past 14 years, Dignitas has helped more than 1,000 people to die with about 150 Britons choosing to die at its facility in Zurich.

In Switzerland, assisted suicide is legal as long as the helper does not personally benefit from the death.

The Swiss government has tried to reduce what has been referred to as "suicide tourism".

But the majority of voters in Zurich have backed assisted dying and also the practice of foreigners travelling to the country to end their lives.

In a poll in May 2011, about 85% of voters in Zurich rejected a call to end legalised assisted suicide, and 78% rejected a call to ban foreigners from travelling to Switzerland to end their life.