The debate to reintroduce a bill to make it legal for assisted suicide in rare medical cases has been reignited in the UK after a British businessman took his own life.
Jeffrey Spector died on Friday following a six-year illness at the Dignitas centre in Switzerland.
The 54-year-old from Lancashire, north-west England, was surrounded by friends and family at a meal before his death at the world-famous centre which aids accompanied suicide.
His wife Elaine and three daughters said they were consumed by grief but respected his decision.
The family said in a statement, "Whilst we are now in a state of all consuming grief and miss Jeffrey very much, we also recognise that he is now at peace and away from the fear which surrounded him in the last few weeks of his life. Jeffrey ended his life with dignity and control which was his overwhelming desire".
In one of his last interviews, Spector said, "If I am paralysed and can't speak, send me to the spirit world".
In Britain, the Suicide Act 1961 makes it an offence to encourage or assist a suicide or a suicide attempt.
However, former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has told the BBC he will attempt to reintroduce a bill that would allow assisted dying in the UK.
He said it was "completely wrong" that terminally ill people did not have the option to end their life.
Falconer said the legislation, if passed, would allow someone diagnosed with six months or less to live who wished to take their own life and was capable of making that decision could be provided with a prescription of drugs they could take in order to end their own life.
"Whatever your take on the subject it should be debated," he said.
Dignitas, a charity founded in 1998, said "The main work of Dignitas is not assistance in dying but in fact suicide preventive work, above all suicide-attempt-prevention work in a broad sense".
