A businessman who used LinkedIn to reveal his plan to end his life on Monday wants his death to support a new drive to change the law on assisted dying, a group supporting him has said.
Simon Binner, 57, was diagnosed with aggressive motor neurone disease (MND) in January and has decided to end his life at a clinic in Basel, Switzerland.
He is a member of the British Humanist Association, which has been working with Binner and other individuals suffering from terminal illnesses in an effort to change the law and make assisted dying legal.
The association aims to raise at least £500,000 to bring another case before the supreme court. It is looking for individuals who might be eligible for legal aid to join the effort.
The BHA chief executive, Andrew Copson, said Binner wanted to change the law so that he could have chosen to die in the UK. “The current law heaps unnecessary suffering and trauma on to families like the Binners,” he said.
Last year the supreme court upheld a ban on doctors helping patients to end their lives. Judges said they could not make a ruling about the right to die for one terminally ill man, Tony Nicklinson, because it was a matter for parliament.
A private members’ debate was held in the House of Commons last month and MPs voted overwhelmingly against changing the law.
The BHA believes it is the right time to bring another challenge in the courts. A spokesperson said a precedent had been set in February when Canada’s supreme court overturned the country’s ban on assisted dying following a 20-year legal battle.
Last week the California governor, Jerry Brown, signed legislation allowing terminally ill patients to legally end their lives using drugs prescribed by doctors. California becomes the fifth US state to change the law, meaning that about 50 million Americans can now choose to legally end their lives under certain circumstances.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said her organisation was also preparing a UK legal challenge to allow terminally ill people, as well as mentally competent adults, to get medical assistance to legally end their lives if they wished to do so.
She said people like Binner should not be forced to travel to Switzerland to end their lives. “Why is it he has to go abroad to have a doctor-assisted death? Why isn’t he free to do that in the UK?” Wootton said.
