Pegasos was established to offer a flexible & responsive assisted dying service to people, regardless of their country of origin.
In May 2018, the core team at Pegasos were all involved in the landmark death of 104-year old Australian ecologist, Professor David Goodall.
Professor Goodall was not sick. At 104 years of age, he simply said he had had enough and now was the time to go. His eyesight was failing, his mobility was going. Most importantly, he could not do the fieldwork that had sustained and driven him all his life.
The death of Professor Goodall raised important issues for the right to die movement in general, and for the individuals who would become the founding professionals at Pegasos.
Firstly, it showed that a person’s desire for a dignified and peaceful assisted death is not solely dependent on terminal illness. Old age and a failing quality of life can also play a role.
Secondly, David Goodall’s experience showed that the Swiss law on assisted suicide is well placed to serve the needs of people who may not fit the traditional criteria used in other places in the world where assisted suicide is legal.
In the US state of California, for example, the law is quite different. The person seeking help from a doctor must be in the ‘terminal phase’ of an illness.
In the Australian State of Victoria, a person may only request assistance to die from a doctor if they are terminally ill with less than 6 months to live (12 months if the diagnosis is neurological).
In countries such as the UK, assisted suicide remains illegal and is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment.
However, because Swiss law says purely that a person may receive assistance from another if the other person’s motives are altruistic, Pegasos is much more flexible in who it is able to help.
And in Switzerland, the people who assist a person to die need not be medical physicians. Anyone may help a person of sound mind. It’s all about motives.
This is why Pegasos is staffed by a multi-disciplinary team which includes, but is not limited to, medical professionals.