Sunday, December 4, 2016

Switzerland: 26% increase in assisted suicide deaths.

Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition



The Swiss media are reporting that the federal statistical office reported that 999 people died by assisted suicide at the Dignitas and Exit suicide clinics in 2015 an increase of 26% in one year.

In October Swissinfo.ch news reported:
The Federal Statistical Office reports that in 2014 Switzerland saw 742 cases of assisted suicide, more than 2.5 times as many as five years previously. In the latest statistics, assisted suicide accounted for 1.2% of all deaths in Switzerland that year. 
Men and women were nearly equally represented in the assisted suicide numbers, with ten out of 100,000 men and nine out of 100,000 women choosing to die in that way when spread out over Switzerland’s resident population. 
In 42% of cases, assisted suicides followed illnesses caused by cancer. Neurodegenerative disorders led to 14% of assisted suicides, followed by cardiovascular illnesses at 11% and musculoskeletal maladies at 10%.
Even though the Federal Statistical Office recently published this information, the data is not new. The Exit suicide clinic reported a 34% increase in 2015 with 782 assisted suicide deaths. The report from Exit suicide clinic indicated that of the assisted suicide deaths, 55% were women and 45% men in 2015.

According to Expatica.com news the number of assisted suicide deaths in Swiss nursing homes, by the Exit suicide clinic, increased from 10 deaths in 2007 to 92 in 2015. The news service reported that the Swiss association for ethics and medicine found this trend alarming and stated:
“To end lives in this way gives it [the practice of assisted suicide] an institutional seal of approval.”
Pietro D'Amico
In August 2015 a healthy depressed British woman died by assisted suicide in Switzerland.

A 2014 Swiss assisted suicide study found that 16% of people who died at Swiss suicide clinics had no underlying illness.

In February 2014, Oriella Cazzanello, an 85 year-old healthy woman died at a Swiss suicide clinic. The letter she sent her family stated that she was unhappy about how she looked.

In May 2014, the Exit suicide clinic extended assisted suicide to healthy elderly people who live with physical or psychological pain. This decision has led to an increase in assisted deaths.

In April 2013, Pietro D’Amico, a 62-year-old magistrate from Calabria Italy, died by assisted suicide at a suicide clinic in Basel Switzerland. His autopsy showed that he had a wrong diagnosis.

The Swiss assisted suicide statistics prove that when assisted suicide is accepted then deaths by assisted suicide continually increase and the reasons for assisted suicide expand.

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