Overview
- Fresh accounts link a 2023 death of London teacher Alistair Hamilton to the Pegasos clinic, with his mother saying she only learned what happened after police traced bank records to Switzerland.
- Pegasos guidance says patients should inform family, yet the clinic says it relied on a friend’s assurance in Hamilton’s case and later apologized and introduced a practice of asking patients to contact relatives in staff presence.
- New reporting describes other families who say they were not told, including a British woman who died in January 2025 and an Irish case that prompted Pegasos to require next-of-kin passport copies and a video call before unaccompanied deaths.
- Pegasos rejects any hint of unlawful conduct, notes it accepts competent adults who are not terminally ill after review, and lists an estimated fee of about CHF10,000 covering consultations, drugs, cremation, and returning ashes.
- The renewed focus follows coverage of Wendy Duffy’s recent death at the same clinic and comes as a UK Lords bill on assisted dying fell without a vote, with critics urging better palliative and mental-health care to reduce trips abroad.