An organisation in Switzerland that assists people in taking their own lives has voted to extend its services to elderly people who are not terminally ill.
According to The Guardian, Exit, Switzerland’s biggest “assisted dying organisation”, voted at their annual general meeting to add “suicide due to old age” to their list of services offered, allowing people with psychological or physical problems to end their own lives.
Swiss law on assisted suicide is extremely permissive, with helping someone to take their own life only illegal if done for “selfish motives.” But organisations like Exit have their own internal rules about who to accept, which vary from group to group.
The organisation’s move was criticised by Dr. Jurg Schlup, president of the Swiss Medical Association. “We do not support the change of statutes by Exit. It gives us cause for concern because it cannot be ruled out that elderly healthy people could come under pressure of taking their own life,” he said.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Bern found that 16% of those dying by assisted suicide had no cause of death listed on their death certificates.
The study, published in the Swiss Journal of Epidemiology, also found that divorced people or those living alone were 50 per cent more likely to seek to end their lives through assisted suicide than other groups.