Statements and comments
27 August 2025
Voluntary Assisted Dying in the Northern Territory, Australia
The Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction in Australia to legalise voluntary euthanasia in 1995. However, in 1997, the Australian Parliament used its constitutional power over territories to overturn the Northern Territory’s law, prohibiting the Territory from legislating on VAD. In 2022, the Restoring Territory Rights Act was introduced which means the Northern Territory (and the Australian Capital Territory ACT) can again legalise VAD.
The Northern Territory public consultation on VAD
Submission by DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity
The Northern Territory Voluntary Euthanasia Society NTVES
15 August 2024
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill
Call for evidence
Submission by DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity
August 2025
End of life in dignity behind prison bars
In his article “The state has a duty to allow an end of life in dignity behind prison bars”, the penitentiary scientist and prison expert Benjamin F. Brägger explains the legal situation in Switzerland regarding assisted suicide and the right to self-determination regarding the time and manner of one’s own end of life in the penal system.
January 2025
Interview with Spanish film director Carlos Marques-Marcet about his film “Polvo serán” (“They Will Be Dust”)
“Polvo serán” is a fictional drama with musical elements. Parts of the film were shot in Switzerland, including at DIGNITAS .
The film premiered in September 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Platform Award. It has toured various other festivals and won other awards/mentions since. “Polvo serán” was released in Spanish cinemas in November 2024.
The story: 70-year-old Claudia gets diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to end her life through an assisted suicide. The film shows Claudia’s emotional journey surrounding her decision as well as the complex family and relationship dynamics and ways of coping with the situation. Claudia’s husband of 40 years, Flavio, cannot imagine life without her and decides to travel with her to Switzerland. Their daughter Violeta becomes a mediator between the two while trying to clarify her own thoughts.
In an interview with DIGNITAS, Carlos Marques-Marcet provides fascinating insights into the making of the film and his personal and artistic exploration of self-determined dying.
November 2024
The death of Chika Kapadia – a friend’s perspective
by Shonali Bose, India
When my friend of 25 years Chika Kapadia broke the news to me that he had just been told he had only four months to live, and would I come for his going away party to Zurich – I was devastated and gobsmacked.
He had just found out 48 hours prior that he was terminal, and on hearing that his end would be painful he asked his doctor if there was any way out. The doctor whispered “Zurich” before hanging up the phone. He refused to explain about a dignified way to die as he claimed it went against his Hippocratic oath. But he gave a hint …
“A Fly on the Wall” is now travelling across various film festivals in the world and after that will be available on an online platform.
Contact: shonalibose@hotmail.com
November 2024
Inspiring talks, panel discussions, scientific sessions
The World Federation of Right to Die Societies conference 2024, 18–21 September in Dun Laoghaire near Dublin
by DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity, November 2024
Every two years, the World Federation of Right to Die Societies (WFRtDS) holds a general assembly where its member associations meet. The WFRtDS is a worldwide non-profit umbrella organization of societies which advocate a self-determined and dignified end of life.
The biannual assembly is part of a public conference organised by one of the WFRtDS members, of which there are 60, in 30 countries around the world. The 2024 conference was hosted by End of Life Ireland, a non-profit organisation of volunteers who advocate for voluntary assisted dying as a valid end-of-life choice.
A preconference event, also open to the public, marked the start of a topic which increasingly is gaining attention around the world: dementia. Canadian Jule Briese presented her play ‘Ten Minutes to Midnight’ based on her and Wayne Briese’s book ‘Shared Conversations – Glimpses of Alzheimer’s’. It describes the dementia journey …
July 2024
Case of Dániel Karsai v. Hungary
European Court of Human Rights judgment – An analysis
On 13 June 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered the judgment in the Case of Dániel Karsai v. Hungary, application no. 32312/23. This judgment further develops precedent jurisdiction concerning an individual’s right to decide by what means and at what point his or her life will end, and it picks up on some related aspects such as the relationship between palliative care and voluntary assisted dying. On the one hand, this ECtHR judgment appears to be a setback in the development of freedom of choice over one’s own end in suffering and life, on the other hand it provides insight into some line of arguments which is valuable for arguing in further proceedings …
26 June 2024
DIGNITAS: Founding an assisted dying society
In 1998, DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity was set up in Switzerland by lawyer Ludwig A. Minelli. It was one of the first end-of-life organisation in the world to help foreigners – non-Swiss citizens – to die. Since then around 4,000 people from 65 different countries have ended their lives with help from the group. Ludwig Minelli tells Jane Wilkinson why he believes freedom of choice is so important.
BBC World Service, “Witness History”
February 2024
New research: Understanding the perspectives of UK-based family members of people who have chosen to end their life by assisted dying
PhD thesis by Dr Megan Knights (nee Hitchcock)*
published October 2023
Background
The option to choose an assisted death, in certain circumstances, is growing in momentum around the world, but at the time of writing, assisted deaths are illegal in the UK. Therefore, those living in the UK wishing for an assisted death, must go abroad to Switzerland, the only country that offers these services to non-citizens, and use an end-of-life organisation such as “DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity”. In these circumstances, family members, aware of their loved ones’ plan, are required to choose to travel with them, facing possible investigation and prosecution on their return, or to leave their loved one to go to Switzerland alone. Family members, and others, who may have been excluded from the plans for an assisted death, may need to come to terms with their loved one choosing this way to die.
This study
Seeking to understand UK-based family members’ perspectives on assisted deaths, Megan interviewed a small sample of family members about their views on assisted dying, the various contexts informing these views, and the resources that they drew on to support themselves during this time.
Summary of main findings
Full thesis
*Dr Megan Knights is a Clinical Psychologist who recently completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire (UH).
October 2023
DIGNITAS, PEGASOS, LIFECIRCLE and EX INTERNATIONAL
A “user’s guide” to Swiss end-of-life centres that accept visitors from abroad
by John Watson, former lawyer and MP
Planning for my own departure from this earth was my leading New Year resolution in January 2022. I was inspired to take on this task by the words of Professor A. C. Grayling at the My Death My Decision meeting in London three years earlier:
“Once you have taken control over how you are going to end your life you can get on with the much more worthwhile job of actually living it.”
Like most people, I think, I feared the pain, the mess and the loss of dignity that the process of dying can frequently involve. I knew that assisted suicide or “medical aid in dying” were illegal in the UK and that any change to our law was not imminent. I knew also that there were so-called “suicide clinics” in Switzerland where non-Swiss nationals could go to end their suffering and life.
But that was, pretty much, the limit of my knowledge.
So how much would it cost? How did it work? How would I actually die? Would a visit to Switzerland take hours, days or weeks? Could I go alone? What preparations would need to be made? Would any helper in the UK actually be breaking our law whether they came with me or not? Would their inheritance be affected?
I had previously seen my mother, my wife and my wife’s mother die from cancer – all three in very difficult circumstances. My own cancer, melanoma, had been diagnosed in 2016. It was being held at bay by the remarkable new development of immunotherapy but I could not expect to remain “symptom free” forever.
After one day’s research I had discovered that there were just four Swiss end-of-life centres involved. They did not use the word “clinics” because it made people believe they were medical places where patients could just check in and die. On the second day I read all their websites in conscientious detail. Three were extremely helpful – though the fourth, EX International, seemed tantalisingly short on detail. It was immediately apparent that they all performed the same purpose, were not seeking to make money out of it and were driven by a strong belief in the freedom of choice to determine the time and manner of one’s own end of life. Yet the differences between them were also emerging.
So I hunted for some form of visitors’ guide – a sort of Trip Advisor for my very particular kind of traveller. And there weren’t any. This seemed amazing. I therefore decided, arrogantly perhaps, to make my enquiries and then publish the results for all to see. Initially, I thought this would need to be in the form of a book but I was not sure anyone would actually want to pay for it. Anyway, all the laws, guidances and regulations were changing so rapidly from one country to another that any book would rapidly have become outdated. The alternative was clear. Do it as a website.
Hence, at the end of June 2022 www.theswitzerlandalternative.com was launched.
The enquiries, which I now refer to, somewhat euphorically, as my “research” were fascinating. It was good straightforward fun. Maybe I am just an odd sort of person but visiting friendly parts of Switzerland, getting to grips with UK inheritance law, talking to campaigners, figuring out potential paperwork and so on kept me engrossed for most of the Spring. At the end, I had written 24,000 words, spent £1,600 on travel and £2,700 on website design.
The website is free to anyone who wants to look at it. But why are people always so keen to hunt for a hidden commercial motive? I have paid for it myself. There is no sponsorship, no advertising and no product placement. I am not offering any professional advice – in fact, I’d probably be breaking the law if I did. This is just a free-to-access information site.
Nonetheless, some visitors can’t help looking for my “real” reason for doing it. I also get bombarded every week with “experts” who tell me what wonders they could provide in terms of “search engine optimisation” – meaning they can get the website more mentions on the Google search lists. They want a lot of money for that. I don’t want to pay it and, anyway, after fifteen months the website seems popular enough. It gets a healthy number of hits each day and the average visitor seems to read at least twelve pages. The UK provides about 50% of the visitors.
The overall conclusion of my research was one of immense encouragement. At whichever centre you choose, the “Swiss option” is safe, professional, reliable and dignified. It is, of course, also expensive – though in my research I observed that all centres make provision for people who are not financially well off, and I do think the “over £15,000” estimate as quoted by Dignity in Dying is somewhat inflated by the small number of people who take a large family group with them on a private jet.
DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity, founded in 1998 shortly after EX International, is the most conservative and most thorough. It also has by far the highest name recognition in the UK. It is fastidious in sticking to the rules. Yet it has managed to ensure that its service to each patient remains intensely personal and individual. Unlike Pegasos and Lifecircle, it asks patients to drink the necessary medication rather than take it intravenously. It is also somewhat less medical in its procedures.
In this rather narrow field of activity, Pegasos is the new kid on the block. Less formal than DIGNITAS, it can be expected to give a faster response and is probably more likely to give a provisional green light. There may eventually be a price to be paid for that, of course. The Swiss authorities have learned to trust DIGNITAS, Lifecircle and EX International. I get the impression that with Pegasos that trust is still being earned.
Lifecircle also uses the cannula method for the medication but has traditionally seemed to apply a softer and more pastoral approach to their task. Sadly, Lifecircle is now closed to new members. Anyone who joined prior to October 2022 can still use their services.
EX International did not give me much information but their reaction could well have been very different if I had been enquiring as a potential visitor with immediate needs.
Do I have a preference for when my time arrives? No. Not yet. I support them all.
Published with kind permission of the author John Watson
30 September 2023
Leeds Festival of Ideas LIFI23
Experienced universally but felt so uniquely, grief will find its way into our lives and affect us in ways sometimes impossible to articulate. Manifesting in all forms, shapes and sizes, why does grief often have the ability to get us a little tongue tied?
hosted by Dame Prue Leith
PROJECTING GRIEF Exhibition at LIFI23: We’re all going to go through grief. Let’s try to get better at talking about it.
22 September – 22 December 2021
Liam McArthur, Member of the Scottish Parliament, lodged a proposal for a Member’s Bill to enable competent adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with assistance to end their life: the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. The public was invited to submit written comments on the proposed Member’s Bill. DIGNITAS wrote a submission (PDF) in support of the proposed Bill.
Consultation Document
Information about the Consultation by FATE – Friends At The End
6 April 2023
Voluntary assisted dying in the Australian Capital Territory ACT
Public consultation
Submission by DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity (PDF)
15 December 2019
The Food and Health Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong invited the public to submit views on end-of-life care legislative proposals regarding advance directives and dying in place. DIGNITAS contributed to the consultation by sending in a submission (PDF).
Website with the Consultation Papers
5 August 2019
On 4 April 2019, the Parliament of South Australia established the Joint Committee on End of Life Choices. DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity contributed to the inquiry by sending the Committee a submission (PDF).
Website of the Parliament – Joint Committee on End of Life Choices
29 April 2019
Interview of DIGNITAS with the South Korean news broadcaster YTN
24 August 2018
The South Africa Parliament invited the public to submit written comments on a proposal for a bill on Advance Directives (Livings Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare), a comment on the National Health Amendment Bill 2018, aiming at gaining legal recognition, legal clarity, and legal enforceability of Advance Directives. DIGNITAS submitted a letter (PDF) in support of the proposed legal recognition.
Government Gazette Notice 41789
27 February 2018
In New Zealand, MP David Seymour introduced the “End of Life Choice Bill” (Bill 269-1) which gives people with a terminal illness or a grievous and irremediable medical condition the option of requesting assisted dying. In response to the public inquiry by the Justice Committee of the Parliament of New Zealand, DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity handed in a submission (PDF). This complements DIGNITAS’ earlier submission in response to the investigation into ending one’s life in New Zealand based on the petition no. 2014/18 of Hon Maryan Street and 8,974 others.
Website of the New Zealand Parliament
June 2015 – February 2016
In New Zealand, the Health Select Committee of the Parliament has received a petition of Hon Maryan Street and 8,974 others requesting “That the House of Representatives investigate fully public attitudes towards the introduction of legislation which would permit medically-assisted dying in the event of a terminal illness or an irreversible condition which makes life unbearable.” An investigation into ending one’s life in New Zealand was undertaken and public submissions were called on this petition, no. 2014/18.
Submission by DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity (PDF)
28 April 2016
VI. Konference Neuropsychiatrického Fóra, Praha, Czechia
Interview by Vojtěch Berger Czech Radio Český rozhlas, Radiožurnál
Booklet to complement the speech of DIGNITAS (PDF)
Website of the Neuropsychiatrické Fórum
30 July 2015
Inquiry into End of Life Choices
Are Victorian laws adequately meeting people’s expectations regarding medical options available at the end of their life? The Legislative Council’s Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia, called for submission as it is interested in the community’s views, insights and experiences in relation to this issue, to inform its recommendations to the Parliament.
Website of the Parliament – Inquiry into End of Life Choices
Submission by DIGNITAS (PDF)
20 August 2014
In Australia, Federal Greens Senator and former GP Dr Richard Di Natale, has tabled an exposure draft for national dying with dignity – legislation in the Australian Senate. The Senate has passed a motion to have that Bill considered by a Senate Inquiry. The Inquiry has called for submissions from the public on the Bill. DIGNITAS has handed in a submission.
Exposure Draft (PDF)
Submission by DIGNITAS (PDF)
14 November 2013 / 6 June 2014
In Scotland, parliament member Margo MacDonald presented a revised proposal for an “Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill”, to make it lawful, in certain circumstances, to assist another to commit suicide; and for connected purposes. A Commitee called for written evidence. DIGNITAS has submitted a response.
Speech of Silvan Luley of DIGNITAS, at the press launch in Edinburgh: (PDF)
Campaign website
Response/submission (short version) by DIGNITAS (PDF)
Response/submission (full version) by DIGNITAS (PDF)
3 July 2012 / 20 November 2012
In England, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Choice at the End of Life, in partnership with Dignity in Dying, launched a draft Assisted Dying Bill for consultation. The draft Bill builds on the recommendations of the Commission on Assisted Dying, which published its findings in January 2012.
Based on its considerations for a proposal for an Assited Sucide (Scotland) Bill and the submission to the Commission on Assited Dying, DIGNITAS handed in a response (PDF) to the APPG.
23 January 2012 / 1 May 2012
In Scotland, parliament member Margo MacDonald lodged a proposal for a Bill, the “Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill”, to enable a competent adult with a terminal illness or condition to request assistance to end their own life, and to decriminalise certain actions taken by others to provide such assistance.
A consultation was held until 30 April 2012.
The proposed Bill includes elements of the practice of accompanied suicides in Switzerland as well as of the “Death with Dignity Act” of the US-State of Oregon.
Response/submission of DIGNITAS to the consultation (PDF)
5 May 2011 / 3 October 2011 / 5 January 2012
In England, Lord Falconer launched The Commission on Assisted Dying which – amongst other aims – shall investigate the circumstances under which it should be possible for people to be assisted to die. See their website www.commissiononassisteddying.co.uk. In answer to the Commission’s Call for evidence, DIGNITAS handed in a submission. submission (PDF).
Upon the visit of two delegates of the Commission on Assisted Dying, DIGNITAS provided additional notes (PDF) to answer specific questions of the Commissioneers.
Final Report of the Commission on Assisted Dying
8 October 2011
“A human life – what’s it worth?”
Contribution of DIGNITAS at the Battle of Ideas Satellite Debate in Zürich, 8 October 2011 (PDF)
3 February 2005
28 August 2004