What is assisted dying, debate surrounding which has grown in recent years?
The head of the Swiss right-to-die organisation 'Dignitas' has ended his life through an assisted death. In recent years countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Austria have all introduced assisted dying laws. In the US, assisted dying is legal in 10 states, but in many countries including the UK and India, it is still highly debated.
New Delhi: Days before his 93rd birthday, Ludwig Minelli, the head of the Swiss right-to-die organisation ‘Dignitas’, ended his life through an assisted death. Dignitas in a statement announcing his death said that, "Right up to the end of his life, he continued to search for further ways to help people to exercise their right to freedom of choice and self-determination in their ‘final matters’ – and he often found them.”
Dignitas further added how it would "continue to manage and develop the association in the spirit of its founder as a professional and combative international organisation for self-determination and freedom of choice in life and at the end of life”.
Assisted dying and related debate
Assisted dying, also referred to as physician-assisted suicide, refers to a process by which a person takes actions to end their life with the assistance of a medical professional. The practice is legal in some countries and in others debate surrounding it is steadily growing. The debate centers around the dilemma between a person’s autonomy on his life and of the moral sanctity of life itself and the protection of vulnerable individuals.
In essence, the process involves a physician "knowingly and intentionally providing a person with the knowledge or means or both required to commit suicide. This might include counseling about lethal doses of drugs, prescribing such lethal doses or supplying the drugs. The practice though is regulated and one where the patient has to meet several pre-ordained criteria for them to receive medical assistance in dying.
Dignitas, is one of the most vocal supporters of the practice of assisted dying and as of 2024, the organisation had helped more than 4,000 people end their lives. Despite its work, and of other such institutions and organisations, the practice of assisted dying remains divisive.
For example, France recently voted to allow some people in the last stages of a terminal illness the right to assisted dying. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Austria have all introduced assisted dying laws since 2015. In the US, assisted dying is legal in 10 states but in several other non-Western countries the practice is still banned.