Inside the Dignitas house

Description:

Guardian reporter Amelia Gentleman conducts an extended interview with Ludwig Minelli, 76, the founder of Dignitas. The not-for-profit assisted suicide organisation has helped 1,032 people to die since its start in 1998. They tour Dignitas' new two-storey house where clients end their lives.

Gentleman reports: "He believes the right to choose to die is a fundamental human right and, in theory, he is willing to help anyone." "But the Swiss medical regulations inhibit Minelli's more radical ideas, prohibiting doctors from prescribing drugs to healthy people, and restricting involvement in assisted suicide for the mentally ill - making it practically impossible for Dignitas to help people who are profoundly depressed to die. This is a prohibition that Minelli is fighting."

This is a long piece that describes Dignitas operations, with several examples. There is a gallery of photographs as well.

[Some notes on other topics are in the Notes section below.]

Links:

To read the full article click on one of these links, both of which go to the same destination. A short link is provided for the convenience of readers. Also, readers may search and browse past advisories on the web (see bottom.)

Source:

Gentleman, Amelia. "Inside the Dignitas house". Guardian. Wednesday 18 November 2009. <www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/18/assisted-suicide-dignitas-house>. Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • assisted suicide

  • Dignitas

  • Ludwig Minelli

  • Switzerland

Notes:

  • The upper house of the Parliament of South Australia is debating the the Greens' voluntary euthanasia Bill. The bill passed in committee three weeks ago by an 11-10 vote.

  • Tomorrow, the lower house of the Parliament of France, l'Assemblee Nationale, will debate a law on the Right to Die with Dignity, a law which is supported by the Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans la Dignite (ADMD-F). A report from Le Monde, translated by Google's computers from French into computer English: http://tinyurl.com/yk3njtd.

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200911183182.
Mailed: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 14:32:42 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

EuthaNEWSia mailing list

To SUBSCRIBE send a message to:

euthanewsia-subscribe@euthanewsia.ca
SUBJECT and TEXT may be left blank

To UNSUBSCRIBE send a message to:

euthanewsia-unsubscribe@euthanewsia.ca
SUBJECT and TEXT may be left blank 

-------------------------------------------------------------

On the Web:

Problems? Send an email to: editor@euthanewsia.ca