The woman and her son were arrested on suspicion of assisting a suicide (Picture: Getty)

A 65-year-old woman and her 25-year-old son have been arrested after police suspected they were planning to take her husband to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to commit suicide.

The woman and the 25-year-old, from the Chichester area of West Sussex, were held on suspicion of encouraging or assisting a suicide.

Details about the condition of the 71-year-old man have not been disclosed and none of the family have been named by Sussex police.

The pair were reportedly contemplating taking the woman’s husband to Dignitas (Picture: Getty)

The force have confirmed officers were having the mental capacity of the ‘vulnerable’ man assessed to determine how able he is to make decisions for himself.




The pair were also later released on bail, Sky News reported.

Assisted suicide remains a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but individual decisions on prosecution are now made on the circumstances in each case.

Dignitas is a Switzerland-based assisted dying group which over the past 14 years has helped more than 1,100 people to die. More than 150 Britons have chosen to die at its clinic in Zurich.