The number of people in the UK registered as members of Dignitas has continued to rise, according to newly published figures from the Swiss assisted-dying organisation.
Statistics published by Dignitas (Full name ‘Dignitas – To live with dignity – to die with dignity’) show that 2,385 people in the UK were members as of 31 December 2025, up from 2,231 in 2024. That is an increase of 154 people in a single year.
And this is part of a much bigger pattern. In 2020, Dignitas had 1,409 members in the UK. Since then, that number has grown by around 69%.
43 people from Great Britain had an assisted death at Dignitas in 2025, up from 37 the year prior, bringing the total number of Brits who have died at Dignitas to 651 since 1998.
These new figures provide yet more evidence that growing numbers of terminally ill people in Britain are looking abroad for reassurance and control at the end of life because they cannot get that choice at home.
The figures come at a time of growing frustration over continued attempts to delay the Bill’s progress through prolonged debate in the House of Lords.
Dave Sowry, co-chair at My Death, My Decision, who accompanied his wife Christy to Dignitas in September 2022, said:
“It is horribly unfair that terminally ill people in Britain are still being driven to look abroad for a choice they should be able to have at home.
These are people already living with fear and uncertainty, yet instead of being supported with compassion in their own country, they are left to travel, often alone & at great cost, to a clinic in Switzerland.
And that unfairness feels even crueller when, in England and Wales, dying people and their families are still being made to wait while this Bill is slowed and stalled at every opportunity in the House of Lords. The need has not gone away, and if anything, these figures show that more people are still being left without the choice they want at the end of life. ”
Dignitas is not the only organisation that allows international members to have an assisted death, meaning the number of UK citizens who have travelled to Switzerland to die is much higher.
Notes
Dignitas recorded 15,968 members worldwide at the end of 2025, with the UK making up almost 15% of that total.
For further comment or information, media should contact Kerry Hogan at kerry.hogan@mydeath-mydecision.org.uk or phone 07922363248. (media only)
Members of the MDMD team, as well as individuals affected by the current law on assisted dying, are available for interview upon request
Media can use the following press images and videos, as long as they are attributed to “My Death, My Decision”.
In 2024, the Assisted Dying Coalition produced a report detailing where in the UK residents have come from before having an assisted death abroad.
My Death, My Decision is a grassroots campaign group that wants the law in England and Wales to allow mentally competent adults who are terminally ill or intolerably suffering from an incurable condition the option of a legal, safe and compassionate assisted death.
