March 30, 2025
Swiss clinic helps UK woman die without her family’s knowledge
Swiss clinic helps UK woman die without her family’s knowledge
An assisted dying clinic in Switzerland has helped a British woman to end her life without informing her family, despite reportedly claiming to have changed its practices after a similar incident in 2023.
Anne Canning, 51, from Wales, travelled to the Pegasos clinic near the Swiss city of Basel in January to end her life.
She chose to do so after the death of her son plunged her into depression, according to her sister Delia, who told ITV News that Anne had no terminal illness and had assured her family she was travelling to Switzerland for a holiday.
The family were completely unaware of Anne’s true intentions until a bundle of letters arrived at their doorstep.
The letters, posted from Switzerland but not directly from the address of the Pegasos clinic, read: ‘If you’re reading this, I am no longer here. I have thought about this long and hard and need to find [my son] and ask him some questions.
‘There is nothing you could have done, because this was my decision to go to Switzerland and be in peace.’
This horrific surprise, revealed in an ITV News investigation, came after Pegasos clinic had reportedly changed their policy to contact family members of every patient who decides to end their life at their clinic before carrying out the lethal injection.
In 2023, chemistry teacher Alastair Hamilton, 47, told his parents he was visiting a friend in Paris but secretly flew to Switzerland to end his life at the Pegasos clinic.
After the distraught family filed a missing persons report with no word of their son’s whereabouts, the Metropolitan Police, the Foreign Office and Interpol eventually discovered Alastair had died with the help of Pegasos.
In emails to Alastair’s family, a frustrated Met Police sergeant criticised Pegasos’ ‘lack of compassion and lack of transparency’ as ‘completely unacceptable’.
Under Swiss law, since 1942, people are allowed to help others to die as long as their motives are not selfish, such as for financial gain.
The law states that the person wishing to die must be of sound mind, but they do not need to be terminally ill or have any medical conditions. The country’s assisted suicide clinics are non-profit organisations.
Its most famous clinic, Dignitas – where at least 540 Britons have died in the past 20 years – has strict rules that its clients must be terminally ill, suffering extreme pain or living with an ‘unendurable disability’.
But Pegasos, run by activist Ruedi Habegger, says its users do not need to be ill to kill themselves. Its website says it will approve someone’s death request ‘in as little as a few weeks’ as long as they are aged over 18.
Ruedi Habegger, President of Pegasos Swiss Association
Though Anne was evidently suffering from depression, her family made it clear she was otherwise healthy.
‘She was one of the healthiest people we know,’ sister Delia told ITV at Anne’s home in Wales, where she and her brother John were packing up their deceased sibling’s belongings.
‘Anyone who loses a child probably wants to die and be with them. But with the right help, she could have got through it.’
With nothing but Anne’s suicide letters to go on and an envelope from a Swiss postcode, Delia was forced to contact several clinics in the hope of finding out where her sister had gone.
She had to wait several days for a response from Pegasos, according to ITV News, only to receive a brief message that read:
‘Anne has chosen to die… She died gently and not alone. I hope her letters help you to accept this. All official papers and her urn will be sent to her brother John.’
A statement released by Pegasos in response to the ITV investigation read:
‘According to our protocols we do the best of our abilities that persons we assist have informed their loved ones of their plans to die.
‘Should we have reason to assume that no information has been provided to close family, we will refrain from proceeding without credible proof that they are aware. This hasn’t been the case lately.’
They added:
‘We understand that the assisted death of a loved person is a distressing time for the family. We are very sorry if Pegasos’ actions or communications have caused further distress to any affected family member at any time and thoroughly consider all concerns.’
‘Finally, we’d like to emphasize that – since our foundation in 2019 – all our actions have been in accordance with Swiss law.’
Swiss clinic helps UK woman die without her family’s knowledge