Assisted Suicide in Switzerland

Abstract

Direct active dying assistance, also known as euthanasia, refers to the killing of a patient at their request in order to shorten the duration of their suffering and is prohibited by law in most countries around the world, including Switzerland. In contrast, assisted suicide, which is legitimised by Article 115 of the Swiss Criminal Code (StGB), is a process in which the person willing to die is assisted by a third party through the provision of a lethal dose of medication that they must take independently. This assistance must be free of selfish motives. In Switzerland, about 700 people die following an assisted suicide (AS) every year, and their number is steadily increasing. By means of a retrospective research study on files of all AS cases from over 30 years, archived in the Swiss Institutes of Forensic Medicine (Schweizerische Institute für Rechtsmedizin), data on a total of 3,666 deaths were collected and analysed. The article presents initial results as well as identified problem constellations to illustrate the situation.