A DOCTOR who has helped patients travel to Switzerland to die is making plans to end his own life with euthanasia.

Dr Michael Irwin has taken five patients to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to end their lives.

Now he has said that when he turns 90 in two years’ time he will make the same final journey himself.

The retired GP, from Hove, said: “I know, from my medical background, that things won’t get better – they will get progressively worse.

“And the point almost certainly will come when I say thank you, it’s been a good life, I’ve lived longer than most people do, let’s say goodbye to it all, as decently as possible.

“If I don’t have a sudden heart attack or something I will definitely be going to Switzerland.”

Dr Irwin, who became known as Dr Death after being arrested for helping a patient travel to Switzerland in 2009, said he still

receives regular requests for assistance through his

website Last Choice Switzerland.

He now also runs a second website Ninety Plus in which he advocates assisted dying for people over 90 who have lived a full life.

He used to be the chairman of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society – now called Dignity On Dying.

He is still good friends with the founder of Dignitas and the director of the Ex International euthanasia clinic in Basel.

He said: “I have not been to Switzerland myself for about three years now, mainly because I don’t like airports.

“But I continue to give people advice. I don’t

know whether I’m breaking any laws when giving advice.

“One person from the UK typically goes to Bern and Basel to be assisted to die every five to six days.

“People worry about the costs but in round terms for the clinic, airport hotels and everything it costs about £10,000, that includes a cremation in Switzerland.

“But in the UK a cremation costs £6,000 on its own.”

Dr Irwin has produced a guide to help elderly people who are not

terminally ill get the help they need to end their lives.

In a booklet called Time To Leave, illustrated with pictures of setting suns and the crumbling West Pier, he says: “My father died at 90 and my mother at 95.

“So, regarding longevity, I have good genes.

“However, now in my 88th year, while still enjoying this wonderful journey called life, I am making preparations for my departure without causing myself, or anyone else, too much discomfort.

“I am well aware that my increasingly decrepit body is getting to the stage when it will eventually be heavily dependent on others for its continuing existence.

“Having had the good fortune to have, so far, a very good life, I am now preparing for a very good departure.

“Surely the decision to decide, say, from the age of 90 onwards, that enough is enough, and avoiding further suffering, to have a dignified death is the ultimate human right for all very elderly, mentally competent individuals.”