A Swiss GP who helped two Scots end their lives has said the only way to end so-called “suicide tourism” is to legalise assisted dying in other countries.

Dr Erika Preisig told an audience in Glasgow that the very sick and elderly should not have to bear the expense and stress of travel when they have decided that they do not wish to continue living.

The former Dignitas doctor now operates Life Circle, a Basel-based centre which has helped around 120 people end their lives.

They include cousins Stuart Henderson, 86, and Phyllis McConachie, 89, from Troon in Ayrshire, who travelled to the clinic to take a fatal drug dosage last year.

Both suffered health problems and feared the day they would be moved from their sheltered housing complex into a care home.

Dr Preisig said: “They had arrived at the point where they could not cope any more.”

The family doctor of almost 30 years was invited to talk by Friends At The End (FATE), an organisation campaigning for a change in Scots law to allow assisted dying.

Dozens of mostly elderly people attended the presentation, How to Die In Peace And Self Determination, at the Mitchell Library.