Guernsey chief minister says assisted dying on the island is ‘inevitable’

Guernsey’s chief minister has said assisted dying on the island is “inevitable”.

Gavin St Pier, who is backing plans to allow euthanasia to be made legal on the English Channel island, said the terminally ill should be given the right to choose how they end their lives.

He tweeted on Wednesday: “Governments can choose to lead or they can choose to follow the will of the people.

“Either way, giving terminally ill individuals their right to informed end of life choices is inevitable.

“The difference is simply: when?”

Earlier this month, it emerged that Swiss assisted suicide organisation Dignitas had offered Guernsey its expertise in legalising assisted dying.

Guernsey will debate next month whether to become the first jurisdiction in the British Isles to allow the terminally ill to take their own lives.

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Mr St Pier has previously said that any programme would be restricted to residents of Guernsey.

The island’s most senior politician says his father Keith’s death from cardiovascular disease nine years ago has shaped his outlook on the issue.

Mr St Pier told the Huffington Post last month: “The end of his life was relatively short.

“He discharged himself from hospital when it was obvious his condition was terminal because he wanted to go home.

“He was under the care of a palliative care team, who were able to ensure his death was a pain free one, but it wasn’t a comfortable death for him.

“More importantly, it wasn’t a death he would have chosen for himself. He very clearly wanted to be in control and of course he wasn’t.”

In its letter, Dignitas said it wanted to offer Guernsey its “know how” because “enhancing and improving end of life options is a means to protect the sanctity of life”.

Although assisted dying is illegal in the UK, Guernsey is a Crown dependency within the British Isles so is not governed by the same laws.

Any changes to the laws in Guernsey would have to be approved by the Privy Council.

Mr St Pier said two people from Guernsey had travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where assisted dying is legal, in the past 10 years.