BRITONS suffering from depression could soon be legally helped to die in Switzerland if a test case in the country’s Supreme Court is successful next month.

Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas, the Zurich-based organisation that has helped 54 Britons to die, revealed yesterday that his group was seeking to overturn the Swiss law that allows them to assist only people with a terminal illness.

In his first visit to the country since setting up Dignitas, the lawyer blamed religion for stigmatising suicide, attacking this “stupid ecclesiastical superstition” and said that he believed assisted suicide should be open to everyone.

“We should see in principle suicide as a marvellous possibility given to human beings because they have a conscience . . . If you accept the idea of personal autonomy, you can’t make conditions that only terminally ill people should have this right,” he told a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton.

“We should accept generally the right of a human being to say, ‘Right, I would like to end my life’, without any pre-condition, as long as this person has capacity of discernment.”

Mr Minelli was speaking at the invitation of Chris Davies, a Lib Dem MEP, who is campaigning to reform British law.

In 2004 Lib Dem party members voted to support the option to die with medical assistance, but both Mr Davies and Nick Clegg, the party’s home affairs spokesman, said that they did not support the legal action being taken by Dignitas. In May Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying Bill was rejected by the House of Lords.

Mr Minelli said that a case was due to be heard at the Supreme Court in Switzerland on October 27 of a person suffering from bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression, who wants to be allowed to die in an assisted suicide.

He would not reveal the person’s name, but confirmed that he or she was neither British nor Swiss. A ruling in favour of the patient would have implications across Europe, including Britain, Mr Minelli said.

He claimed that such a move would help to cut the suicide rate to about 20 per cent to 25 per cent of its current level. “You could avoid the huge majority and reduce costs to the health services,” he said.

This prompted a furious reaction from groups protecting the rights of elderly and disabled people.

A spokeswoman for the Disability Rights Commission said: “This confirms the suspicions of many disabled people that legalising assisted suicide would be the start of a slippery slope that would lead to anyone, whatever their condition, being helped or even coerced into opting for death.”

Even groups in favour of assisted suicide said that Mr Minelli had gone too far.

Deborah Annetts, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “Any law in the UK must be based around choice for competent adults who are terminally ill. This is a fundamental safeguard to ensure that it is the patient who chooses, fully informed and aware of the decision they take. We are totally opposed to allowing people with chronic depression to have help to die.”

The meeting also heard from Sophie Pandit whose mother, Anne Taylor, died in January with the help of Dignitas. Dr Taylor suffered from the degenerative disease progressive supranuclear palsy.

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure