Terminally ill businessman announces death date on LinkedIn profile

London, Oct 18: A 57-year-old terminally ill company director has used his LinkedIn profile to announce the dates of his death next week and funeral before he ends his own life at a Swiss euthanasia clinic.

Simon Binner, operations director at a health and social care organisation Caremark in Sutton, was diagnosed with aggressive motor neurone disease (MND) in January following which he handed over his role to another person and became a non-executive director.

"I died in Switzerland with Eternal Spirit on Mon 19 Oct 2015 and my funeral was on Fri 13 Nov 2015," Binner's profile on the website, mainly used for professional networking, reads.

"As I was driven home I had already decided what I would gladly have to do when my time was upon me. "My MND accelerated very rapidly. The sawbones initially thought I would last until 2017/2018, but they were mistaken - no worries, it's an inexact science!

"I don't recommend MND! Better to have one massive fatal stroke or be killed instantly by a drunk driver! There is nothing that I can say that's positive about MND," the profile's section titled 'Patient' reads.

Binner, from Purley in Surrey, said in the post that he will travel to the Eternal Spirit clinic in Basel where he will be assisted to die due to MND, a rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system, leading to muscle weakness that makes it difficult to walk, speak, swallow and breathe.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said Binner's story highlighted the need to change the law on assisted dying.

"The tragedy at the heart of Simon’s story is that if the law allowed people with incurable and terminal conditions to seek a doctor-assisted death in this country, he and others like him would have more time to spend with their loved ones before their conditions became intolerable for them.

"The current law heaps unnecessary suffering and trauma on to families like the Binners. Our thoughts of course continue to be with them at this difficult time," he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

PTI