A clinic in Switzerland that helps hundreds of people die every year has apologized to the mother of a British man who committed suicide without his family’s knowledge. Following an ITV News investigation, Pegasos said it would change its procedures to ensure family members were always notified in future.
Alastair Hamilton, 47, told his mother he flew to Paris last August but instead traveled to Basel where he took a fatal dose of drugs. As Judith Hamilton, 82, from Hampton, west London, waved him off at the airport, she said her son “put his arms around me, looked me straight in the eye, smiled and he said, ‘I love you, Mom, I love you very much. , always has been, always will be, no matter what happens’”.
The chemistry teacher had lost weight dramatically and complained of stomach problems in the months leading up to his death, but the disease had not been diagnosed. His family supported him in seeking medical help and had no idea that he was actually traveling to Switzerland to end his life.
When he did not return to Britain and did not answer his phone, his mother reported him missing. Bank records eventually revealed he had paid £11,000 to Pegasos to access what is known as a ‘voluntary assisted death’ in Switzerland.
ITV News traveled with his family to follow his final journey and confront the clinic that accepted his online application form, which the news organization said it had seen. Limited to 300-word answers, Alastair told them his undiagnosed condition was causing him “pain, fatigue and discomfort” which had “ruined my life”.
However, he admitted that “there is currently no definitive medical explanation” for his illness and that his family was unaware that he had decided to commit suicide. Despite this, Pegasos accepted his request and within days of arriving in Switzerland he was helped to die.
ITV News managed to trace his final journey to an industrial estate on the outskirts of Basel, where Alastair is believed to have died in an office building next to an asphalt factory. At the request of his mother and brother Bradley, ITV News took them to the building, where they were overcome with grief.
‘It’s not the best place for your last look at the earth. It’s even more heartbreaking that someone could have been with him, but they didn’t tell us and he didn’t feel that. [he could]Bradley said.
His mother burst into tears and said: “I keep saying to myself, ‘Oh Alastair’.”
After Alastair’s death, his brothers emailed Pegasos repeatedly, but they continued to wait for a response. Eventually the clinic responded, with the involvement of the police and the British Embassy, confirming Alastair’s death and returning his ashes to his family by post.
ITV News persuaded a Pegasos representative to meet Judith and Bradley in Switzerland to answer their questions. At an anonymous office in central Basel, the group was greeted by Sean Davison, who had spoken to Alastair repeatedly before he died.
Mr Davison does not work for Pegasos, but for a separate organization called Exit International, which advocates for the right to an assisted death. He was the last person Alastair called from his deathbed. When asked by ITV News if he could have tried to stop him, Mr Davison insisted he had tried to stop Alastair from killing himself.
‘He said he told me [his family], but they didn’t want to talk about it,” Mr Davison said. “He said they didn’t support him. I didn’t know they wouldn’t come until the end. I had nothing to do with it, I was just his friend.
“He even called me from his deathbed and said, ‘Shaun, I’m so grateful that I had a friend to talk to.’ I’ve tried [to dissuade him] every time I spoke to him. I said: ‘You are a handsome man, you have such a life ahead of you’. I really begged him: I would never encourage anyone to end their life.”
Following the interview with Mr Davison, the ITV team were then asked to leave before the Pegasos representative entered the room to speak to the Hamilton family. During the meeting, the family said the representative apologized for the shortcomings in the way Alistair’s case was handled.
Under Swiss law, anyone can be helped to commit suicide, as long as the person helping them does not have selfish motives. But the best-known clinic – Dignitas – requires people to have a terminal illness, “intolerable disability” or “unbearable pain” to qualify for help.
The Pegasos representative told the Hamilton family that their procedures would now be brought more into line with guidelines set out by the Swiss Medical Association in 2022, which state that a family should always be informed if a relative is planning to to die. However, they also made it clear that Pegasos does not believe in many of the guidelines, which also state that a life must be unbearable before someone is helped to die.
After the meeting, Judith and Bradley said they were pleased that Pegasos planned to tighten procedures, but still believed that Alastair should not have died without their knowledge.
“I was robbed of the opportunity to go there and hug him while he did that, and give him a kiss goodbye, all because these checks and balances didn’t exist at Pegasos,” Bradley said.
Judith added: ‘We didn’t get the chance to be with him or, in my case, to drag him home tooth and nail if we had to.’
Responding to ITV’s investigation, Pegasos said: “As conveyed at the meeting, we would like to reiterate to the family that we are very sorry that our communications caused them further distress last year. We weren’t sure how to handle the situation. in terms of communication and legally and therefore did not act as we would do today. We hope our meeting helped them better understand Alastair’s decision and path.
“Pegasos has always respected and continues to respect applicable Swiss law without exception. We always need reports from medical specialists. A decision can only be made on the basis of these reports, other documents and direct contact with the data subject.
“We are aware of our great responsibility. This is why, in the rare cases where we have reason to believe that no information has been provided to the next of kin by the person requesting voluntary assistance in dying, we will abort the procedure on the spot.
“In 2022, the Swiss Medical Association revised its guidelines regarding assisted death. It is important to understand that these guidelines are not legally binding on the associations, but are policies for the medical professionals.
“Several assisted dying organizations, including Exit, Dignitas and Pegasos, publicly spoke out against the revised guidelines, as they endanger the self-determination of people planning a voluntary assisted death and freedom of choice in Switzerland.”