Christopher Eccleston would consider ending his life in Switzerland if he was diagnosed with dementia.
The former ‘Doctor Who’ actor lost his father Ronnie, who died in 2012 aged 83 from vascular dementia – which he was diagnosed with a decade earlier – and as a result of what the actor witnessed in the latter stages of his dad’s life he wouldn’t want his loved ones to "see [him] suffer" if he was struck down with the disease.
Christopher – who has kids Albert, seven, and Esme, six, from his former marriage to Mischka – said: "I’d be petrified. But I just think about the burden. It would be responsible. If I didn’t have children.
"But you are better to be forewarned. My dad didn’t have that. I’d want to go to Switzerland, I’d want an exit. Absolutely, Dignitas, that’s where I’d want to go.
"Primarily because I wouldn’t want to have my loved ones see me suffer, for their sake, and I’d like to keep my dignity.
"When I had my children I was 48 and 49. So can you imagine if I started with dementia at 70, they wouldn’t be very old, and I’d be, in a sense, cannibalising their life."
The 55-year-old star has called for it to be legal for people to have the right to end their own lives in Britain.
He added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "We have to move towards that, absolutely. Having witnessed what I have witnessed.
"To witness someone become demented, someone going out of their mind. In the end you are reduced to an animal state of just existence."
Last week, Christopher revealed he battled with anorexia during his time on ‘Doctor Who’, on which he played the titular Time Lord in 2005.
He said: "Many times I’ve wanted to reveal that I’m a lifelong anorexic and dysmorphic. I never have.
"I always thought of it as a filthy secret, because I’m Northern, because I’m male and because I’m working-class.
"The illness is still there raging within me as the Doctor. People love the way I look in that series, but I was very ill. The reward for that illness was the part. And therein lies the perpetuation of the whole sorry situation."
Christopher Eccleston would consider ending his life at Dignitas if diagnosed with dementia
