Assisted suicide remains open for Swiss living abroad
The assisted suicide organisation EXIT has dropped a proposal to restrict its services to people living in Switzerland.
Members were told of the u-turn at the organisation’s general annual assembly on Tuesday, reports Swiss public broadcaster SRFExternal link.
EXIT’s board of directors had wanted to restrict the service to within the borders of Switzerland as it was becoming difficult to obtain the necessary documentation from abroad and to arrange journeys to Switzerland.
But earlier this year, Swiss media reported that the proposal was not being viewed favourably by members. For this reason, EXIT’s directors decided to drop the proposal.
"Due to the resistance, the association's board decided to keep the current membership requirements unchanged," EXIT Vice President Jürg Wiler said in a statementExternal link.
Only around 1% of the 913 people who used EXIT’s services last year lived abroad.
Swiss law tolerates assisted suicide when patients commit the act themselves and helpers have no vested interest in their death. Assisted suicide has been legal in the country since the 1940s.
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