INSIDE DIGNITAS – The myth of a healthy person who wants to die
15 May 2024
On 13 March 2024, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court acquitted Geneva doctor Pierre Beck of the charge of acting against the provisions of the Narcotics Act. It had already acquitted him on 9 December 2021 in relation to the Therapeutic Products Act. Dr Pierre Beck, former president of EXIT Suisse romande, had assisted the suicide of an 86-year-old supposedly healthy woman, together with her seriously ill husband. The elderly wife had decided that she did not want to continue living without her husband under any circumstances. The case was judged by various courts and no violation of applicable law was found by the Supreme Court.
Irritatingly, the repeated use of the term “healthy” in the court judgments and press coverage overlooked something essential: Someone who is truly healthy does not want to die – and does not chose assisted suicide either. The World Health Organisation’s constitution states: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”[1]. This means that a serious suffering can exist even if there is no diagnosis as defined in the ICD and ICF classification tables.
The acquittal of Pierre Beck implicitly confirms this and thus gives doctors more legal certainty. The fact that proceedings were initiated in the Beck case also shows that the current legal framework in Switzerland, according to which every assisted suicide is investigated by the police, the public prosecutor’s office and a medical officer, works well. Fears that more people will now make use of assisted suicide are unfounded: No doctor will issue a prescription for sodium pentobarbital to a genuinely healthy person.
The basic requirements for assisted suicide remain the same as before: capacity of discernment and a minimum level of physical mobility. For an assisted suicide with DIGNITAS, the person must be a member of the association. If a person decides to apply for an assisted suicide, the application will be examined by a Swiss doctor as soon as the required documents are complete. In Switzerland, only doctors with a licence to practise may issue a prescription for sodium pentobarbital, the medication used for assisted suicide. For persons living in Switzerland, this is often the family doctor (general practitioner, GP). The deliberation and permanence of the wish to die must be clearly recognisable and comprehensible to the examining doctor in every case.
[1] https://www.who.int/about/accountability/governance/constitution
Links:
Media Release of the Swiss Federal Court of 13 March 2024 (in German)
DIGNITAS media release of 14 March 2024 (in German)
Judgment of the Swiss Federal court of 13 March 2024 (in French)
