AUSTRALIAN scientist, David Goodall, has ended his life in Switzerland at the age of 104.

The British-born biologist was declared dead at 12.30pm on Thursday, Exit International director Philipp Nitschke said.

Goodall had travelled to Switzerland to take advantage of the country’s assisted suicide laws.

The scientist, Exit International’s first member, said this week that he had been contemplating suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctor’s restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.

Goodall’s supporters want the controversial practice to be more accepted as a legitimate choice for elderly people of sound mind.

Hundreds of people – some far more frail than Goodall, who used a wheelchair – travel to Switzerland every year to take their lives.

Speaking yesterday in the room where he later died, Goodall said: “My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And I’m very happy to end it.”

Nitschke said that before he died, Goodall had to answer “several questions so he knew who he was, where he was and what he was about to do”.

“He answered those questions with great clarity, activated the process” while music played in the background, he added.