Swiss assisted suicide clinic founder charged with profiteering

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

L

Minelli at the Dignitas clinic

udwig Minelli, the founder of the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic, has been charged for profiteering in the deaths of his clients. Accusations that Minelli charges inappropriate fees at the Dignitas clinic have circulated for years.

• Swiss suicide clinic is a profitable death business.

The Swiss media have reported that prosecutors are basing their case on two key cases. According to the Swiss Local:

In one of the cases, Minelli allegedly in 2010 charged a mother and daughter pair around 10,000 francs each instead of the usual cost of some 5,000 to 6,000 francs. 

In the second case, Minelli is alleged in 2003 to have taken advantage of an 80-year-old woman who was sick but not terminally ill. He approached four doctors before finally finding one who was willing to aid to woman to commit suicide. 

Prosecutors argue his persistence in this second case was based on the fact the woman had promised a 100,000-franc donation to Dignitas on her death. They also argue the woman gave power of attorney to Minelli, allowing him to transfer 46,000 francs to a Dignitas account when she died.

Swiss law permits assisted suicide as long as it is not done for “self-serving” motives. Breaking the law could result in a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Soraya Wernli

Several years ago, Soraya Wernli, a former Dignitas employee, told the Daily Mail that  Minelli was selling the personal effects of his dead clients at pawn shops and he was charging some of his clients exorbitant fees. Wernli also told the Daily Mail about the horrific death of Peter Auhagen. According to the article:

The gruesome 70-hour death of Peter Auhagen was the case that ended Wernli’s career with Dignitas and caused her to agree to be a secret informer for the police who were investigating Minelli. 

Usually Minelli used a lethal dose of barbiturates to assist suicides but in the case of Auhagen, Minelli decided to test a “suicide machine” that the patient controlled the administration of drugs. Wernli said that: ‘the machine had a fault which meant it couldn’t pump all the poison into his system. The man was partially poisoned, in agony and thrashing around in a coma, frothing at the mouth and sweating. ... It was a terrible thing to witness, and I knew it could not go on. 

Wernli recounts that Auhagen was still alive. She called Minelli who then came by and after a heated discussion he told the family to go for a walk and then someone administered the drugs by injection. Wernli claims that Minelli kept a supply of drugs in his personal office in case of an emergency.

Pietro D'Amico

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.

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 August 2015 a healthy depressed British woman died by assisted suicide in Switzerland.

Minelli also accused of dumping human remains into Lake Zurich.

Sadly, if convicted, prosecutors appear to be only seeking a fine.

Swiss assisted suicide clinic dumped human remains in Lake Zurich

Lake Zurich

Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In April 2010, Dignitas founder, Ludwig Minelli, was implicated in the discovery of cremation urns that were dumped in Lake Zurich. 

In June 2010, the Telegraph published an interview with former Dignitas employee, Soraya Wernli, who stated that Minelli was dumping cremation urns and Dignitas was based on Minelli's personal financial gain.

Swissinfo.ch reported that the Swiss high court upheld the requirement that Dignitas dispose all remains in cemeteries after Dignitas lost the court case. Swissinfo.ch reported:

Urns removed from Lake Zurich

The grisly find in 2010 prompted the local authorities to draft new regulations five years later that outlawed the professional disposal of human remains in the canton. Dignitas fought the order, arguing that it represented an unfair restriction of trade. But both the Administrative Court and now the Supreme Court have sided with the canton. 

The discovery of 67 urns in Lake Zurich, near to a Dignitas clinic, made international headlines seven years ago. The human remains were found by divers from the lake rescue service who were looking for a missing sunshade.  

A former Dignitas employee told the media that it was common to dump urns in the lake and estimated there to be around 300 in the watery grave. Dignitas denied the claims and Zurich prosecutors dropped a criminal probe after being unable to prove who had put the urns in the lake.

Dignitas is known for pushing the boundaries of assisted suicide in Switzerland. 

Swiss Federal Court drops charges by assisted suicide campaigner against police and forensic team

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Criminal trespassing charges filed by Ludwig Minelli, the founder of the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic against Swiss police and a forensic medical team was rejected by the Swiss Federal Court.

According to the Swiss media:

The court decided that there would be no criminal proceedings against seven members of canton Zurich’s prosecution, police and forensic medicine teams. In August 2012, they were called to a house in Pfäffikon for a legal inspection involving a person who had committed assisted suicide. In another room, they noticed a second person who was not dying as expected but gasping for air. 

The civil servants decided to take the 67-year-old woman ... to the hospital, where she received painkillers and died the same day. The government employees stayed at the house owned by Dignitas until the paramedics arrived.

Ludwig Minelli

Minelli filed criminal trespassing charges because the authorities didn't leave the Dignitas suicide clinic after he asked them to leave. The media article stated:

...the Federal Court in Lausanne concluded that it is understandable that the people present had assumed that something had gone wrong in the case of the second accompanied suicide, and that they had tried to uphold the rights of the unconscious woman. The judges said that by virtue of their function it was correct to stay in the Dignitas house and take measures to protect her.

The Dignitas assisted suicide clinic has been associated with several controversial assisted suicide deaths. 

Home Care boss calls for Dignitas suicide clinics in Britain.

Chai Patel

Dr Chai Patel, who overseas 230 nursing homes in Britain is calling for establishment of suicide clinics.

According to the Telegraph newspaper Patel stated at the National Care Homes Congress that:

Dr Patel said the argument for the right to die should come strictly from an "ethical and human perspective" but acknowledged that it could also have a financial impact. 

"If as people we think this is a higher ground to take as a society, then it is the right thing to do, the economic reasons around that should not drive it," he said. "Once people agree this is the way they want to go, [in terms of] the financial resources what will be, will be."

The Telegraph reported that Patel, who is a multi millionaire, and provides medical care to the wealthy, also stated:

This could eventually lead to clinics like Dignitas operating in the UK, rather than forcing people to visit Switzerland to end their life, he said.

Dignitas coffin

The Swiss media reported today that the Dignitas suicide clinic in Basel Switzerland assisted the suicide of Pietro D’Amico, a 62-year-old magistrate from Calabria in southern Italy, in April, 2013 after D'Amico received a wrong diagnosis.

Bioethicist Wesley Smith stated today that:

There’s money to be made off of suicide clinics. Perhaps the not so good doctor wants to get in on the ground floor.

Dr Patel's comments are very dangerous to the many people who have become dependent on others, especially their care-givers. Society should be treating its elders with respect. Elders are not trash to be disposed.

Link to the article: Dignitas founder, Ludwig Minelli, is reported to be making millions on assisted suicide, but the Swiss government offers no oversight. 

Swiss assisted suicide clinic kills an Italian man with a wrong diagnosis.

Pietro D'Amico

The Dignitas suicide clinic in Basel Switzerland assisted the suicide death of Pietro D’Amico, a 62-year-old magistrate from Calabria in southern Italy, in April, 2013 after D'Amico received a wrong diagnosis.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia must be prohibited. The decision of one person to end the life of another person is irrevocable. People who are not terminal or living with depression, cannot be treated for their condition once they are dead.

Dignitas is a suicide clinic that is operated by Ludwig Minella, a retired lawyer. Dignitas is known for encouraging the suicide deaths of foreign "suicide tourists" for a fee.

An article that was published in Switzerland's english news service, The Local, stated:

The father-of-one took the decision after a wrong diagnosis from Italian and Swiss doctors, his family's lawyer Michele Roccisano told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. 

An autopsy carried out by the University of Basel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine found that D’Amico was not suffering from a life-threatening illness at the time of his death. 

Roccisano has called on the Italian and Swiss authorities to examine D’Amico’s medical records to determine what went wrong.

Dignitas has also been connected to other controversies: 

1. The assisted suicide death of a UK man with dementia.

2. The Swiss government refusing to regulate assisted suicide groups even after a Zurich prosecutor admitted that assisted suicide needed to be regulated.

3. June 2012, the Canton Vaud voted to allow assisted suicide groups to operate in the nursing homes.

4. Dignitas founder, Ludwig Minelli, was reported to be making millions on assisted suicide.

5. Former Dignitas employee, Soraya Wernli, spoke about the many abuses at the Dignitas suicide clinic.

Swiss assisted suicide groups complain about government sponsored research.

Swissinfo.ch reported on a news conference sponsored by the 5 assisted suicide organizations in Switzerland.

News Conference

Exit Romandie, Exit Deutsche Schweiz, Dignitas, Exit International and Lifecircle held a news conference  to announce their fears that the Science Foundation, a government controlled foundation, has sponsored an unscientific and biased research study on the practice of assisted suicide in Switzerland.

The organisations are convinced that the research project is a sham, to bring the subject back on the political agenda. They have cancelled their cooperation for the time being.
 
“We really made an honest effort, but at some point you just give up,” said Bernhard Sutter, vice-president of Exit Deutsche Schweiz, at a press conference in Zurich.
 
Sutter said already the starting point of the program was teeming with moral and theological views. “This is not open and unbiased research,“ Sutter said. He claims the scientists are instead looking for ways to ban assisted suicide.

Ludwig Minelli

 
"Those two people are unsuitable for this task,” said Ludwig Minelli, the head of Dignitas. He said that the research he had inspected looked as if it was “controlled by [controversial Catholic institution] Opus Dei”.

The science foundation firmly rejects the charges. The scientific quality of the project is sound, according to spokesman Ori Schipper. The foundation had been aware of the charges since December 2012 and had offered to discuss the issue with the organisations but they had declined, he added.

According to the science foundation’s website, End of Life NRP 67 aims to make the last phase of life more humane. It encompasses 30 individual projects, including research on assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Considering the many claims of abuse concerning the operation of the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic, it does not surprise me that the Swiss assisted suicide groups are not open to government sponsored research to identify the assisted suicide practice in Switzerland.

Links to previous articles concerning the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.
* Indepth article concerning the Dignitas clinic.
* British assisted suicide deaths in Switzerland remain low.
* Ludwig Minelli is making millions.

British Assisted Suicide deaths in Switzerland remain low

I was going through my emails and read this excellent article that  was written by Dr. Peter Saunders, the Campaign Director for the Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK. The article was entitled: Trickle of British Suicide cases to Dignitas continues as Swiss vote for status quo.

By Peter Saunders - September 28, 2012

Dignitas Suicide Clinic

Switzerland's parliament voted against a bid to toughen controls on assisted suicide this week, rejecting concerns about foreigners travelling to the country to die.

Members of the lower house of parliament voted against changing the code, arguing self-regulation by right-to-die organizations such as Exit and Dignitas worked and the liberal rules protected individual freedoms.

The vote in parliament mirrors a referendum in Zurich last year when voters rejected overwhelmingly proposed bans on assisted suicide and ‘suicide tourism’.

Assisted suicide has been allowed in Switzerland since 1941 if aided by a non-physician who has no vested interest in the death. Assisted suicide is also legal in the US states of Oregon and Washington. Euthanasia is permitted only in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.

The number of Swiss residents who died by assisted suicide rose by 700% between 1998 and 2009, according to official statistics, with almost 300 Swiss residents dying this way in 2009, compared to 43 in 1998.

According to figures I obtained today, Dignitas (pictured above), the only Swiss association that helps applicants from abroad commit suicide, has so far accompanied 1,298 people in taking their own lives. Of these cases, 664 came from Germany, 182 from Britain, 129 from Switzerland, 117 from France, 33 from Italy, 27 from the United States and 17 from Spain.

The controversial Dignitas facility run by Ludwig Minelli, who has called assisted suicide ‘a marvellous possibility’, has attracted much criticism in recent years over discarded cremation urns dumped in Lake Zurich, reports of body bags in residential lifts, suicides being carried out in car parks, the selling of the personal effects of deceased victims and profiteering with fees approaching £8,000 per death. 

Although most assisted suicides have been carried out for patients suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease there have also been case reports of people who could have lived for decades ending their lives (including those with arthritis, blindness, spinal injury or diabetes)

Thus far about 182 Britons in ten years – on average 18 per year – have killed themselves at Dignitas. The full numbers are as follows:

2002 - 1, 2003 - 15, 2004 - 10, 2005 - 15, 2006 - 26, 2007 - 17, 2008 - 23, 2009 - 27, 2010 - 26, 2011 - 22

The British media give huge publicity to cases that do occur creating the false impression that there is a growing demand when in fact this is not the case at all. 

These numbers are a tiny fraction of the 550,000 natural deaths that occur in Britain each year and a very small trickle compared with the 650 and 13,000 who, on the basis of the 2005 Lords Select Committee report, it was estimated would die in Britain annually under an Oregon or Dutch-type law respectively.

A recent study by Clive Seale at Brunel University found no cases of assisted suicide in Britain itself.

The huge increase in assisted suicides amongst Swiss nationals, along with the disturbing 18% annual increase in euthanasia in The Netherlands over the last year (in figures released earlier this week) will sound strong alarms to legislators in Britain that we should not be contemplating going down this route. 

The right to die can so easily become the duty to die and any change in the law will inevitably place vulnerable people at risk out of fear of being a burden to others. It is appropriate that more than seven out of ten MPs refuse to back calls to legalise assisted suicide as shown in a recent ComRes poll. 

The British Suicide Act is thereby shown to remain fit for purpose. Through its blanket prohibition on all assistance with suicide, it continues to provide a strong deterrent to the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people whilst giving both prosecutors and judges discretion in hard cases. It strikes the right balance, is clear and fair and does not need changing. 

British parliaments have rightly rejected any loosening of the law here three times over the last five years – in 2006, 2009 and 2010 - on the basis that any change would place pressure on vulnerable people (those who are elderly, disabled, sick or depressed) to end their lives for fear of being a financial or emotional burden on others. 

The Swiss vote means that the small number of British people travelling to Switzerland to end their lives will probably continue but we should continue to resist any calls from pressure groups to weaken the law here in the UK.

Swiss parliament refuses to regulate assisted suicide groups.

A vote in the Swiss parliament yesterday rejected a proposal to regulate the assisted suicide organizations and their suicide clinics. The two main assisted suicide organizations are Exit and Dignitas. Members of the lower house of parliament voted against changing the code, arguing self-regulation by right-to-die organizations such as Exit and Dignitas worked and the liberal rules protected individual freedoms.

A German assisted suicide group recently announced its intention of establishing a assisted suicide clinic in Zurich. The group Verein Sterbehilfe Deutschland (StHD), that is founded by Roger Kusch, opened an office in Zurich on September 14, 2012.

Last year, voters in the Zurich canton rejected similar proposals to restrict assisted suicide.

In July, I commented on an article that was published by Swissinfo.ch reporting that Zurich prosecutor Andreas Brunner told Swissinfo that legislation is required because there are no regulations for assisted suicide assistants. He stated:

“At first the argument was that it [assisted suicide] was intended for the terminally ill, then it was broadened to include the very ill facing extreme suffering,”

“Then the idea was that it should be open to the elderly who were suffering the effects of old age or a combination of illnesses, and finally it’s open to healthy people,”

Switzerland’s assisted suicide organisations are left to their own devices legally.

He then concluded his statement by saying:

 “The organisations are not required to be run on a not-for-profit basis and are not subject to accounting obligations. Neither are they required to keep comprehensive records of their cases.”

“I’m not saying the organisations are not already doing these things but it should be laid down in law,”

Last June, the Canton Vaud, voted in a referendum to allow assisted suicide groups, such as Exit and Dignitas, to operate in the nursing homes. This is clearly a recipe for elder abuse.

Soraya Wernli

At the same time there have been huge increases in assisted suicide deaths in Switzerland while the two main assisted suicide groups in Switzerland, Dignitas and Exit were responsible for 560 assisted suicide deaths in 2011.

In 2010, the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic made news when, Soraya Wernli, a former assisted suicide assistant, made allegations about abuses and financial concerns related to how Ludwig Minelli, the founder and leader of Dignitas, was operating Dignitas that were published in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine.

Another article that was published in the Telegraph newspaper in the UK in June 2010, indicated that Minelli was "making millions" from the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic. The article also brought up significant concerns related to the dumping of cremation urns and the fee structure at the Dignitas clinic.

The main reason why there have been no restrictions or "push-back" in Switzerland is that the group Exit reportedly has 75,000 members who have formidable political clout and their is currently no organized opposition to assisted suicide in Zurich.

Swiss assisted suicide deaths continue to increase.

An article by Jared Yee and published by Mercatornet.com explains the rapid expansion of assisted suicide by assisted suicide organisations in Switzerland. The article titled: Assisted Suicide booms in Switzerland states that:

The number of people who died by assisted suicide in Switzerland by assisted-suicide organisations rose significantly in 2011, new figures show. Exit, which assists the suicides of Swiss residents only, announced that it assisted the suicide of 416 people last year up from 348 the previous year. Of those deaths, 305 occurred in the German-speaking region, up from 257 in 2010, and 111 occurred in the French-speaking areas, up from 91 in the previous year. The organisation also saw a boom in new memberships. It now has 75,000. In 2011, Dignitas, Switzerland’s other major assisted-suicide organisation, assisted the suicide of 144 people, a 35% increase as reported by the Sonntag Zeitung.

Dignitas, which is operated by Ludwig Minelli, assists the suicides of foreigners. Reports of “suicide tourism” have sparked fiery debate both domestically and internationally, increasing pressure on the Swiss government to tighten assisted-suicide laws. Last June it ruled out introducing new legislation to regulate the practice, but the government has since proposed a set of measures to bolster suicide prevention and improve palliative care options. The Swiss Federal Court has ruled that a person has a right to end his or her life provided he or she is of sound mind. ~ swissinfo.ch, Feb 20

Exoo cancels plans to open assisted suicide clinic.

Last week we reported that euthanasia lobby activist, George Exoo, was planning to open a suicide clinic in North Carolina.

Exoo bought a small house in Gastonia North Carolina that he was planning to renovate and turn-into a suicide clinic.

Link to my blog article on the suicide clinic: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/09/george-exoo-planning-to-start-death.html

Recently Stuart Weisberg, a psychiatrist in Portland Oregon announced his intention to open a suicide clinic, similar to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Weisberg was planning to offer extra services for his clients, including a $1200 fee for a three session with his dog (dog therapy). Link to my blog article about Weisberg: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/06/dignitas-founder-ludwig-minelli-is-now.html

The fascination with opening assisted suicide clinics appears to be linked to the reports that Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas the assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, has become phenomenally wealthy from his death mission.

Yesterday, an article written by Karen Garloch was published in the Charlotte Observer reported that Exoo didn't expect that he would be met with such outrage for opening an assisted suicide clinic and has shelved his plans to open an assisted suicide clinic.

Garlock reported:

Only days after going public, an internationally known right-to-die advocate says he's calling off plans to open a center for assisted suicide in Gastonia.

The Rev. George Exoo of West Virginia claims to have attended the suicide deaths of more than 100 people in multiple states and, most famously, in Ireland.

Exoo, 68, spent several months in a West Virginia jail in 2007 until a U.S. judge rejected a request from Irish authorities who wanted to extradite him and charge him in connection with the 2002 suicide of Rosemary Toole.

The experience didn't deter Exoo. He still believes mentally competent adults have the right to end their lives with assistance and support if pain from cancer or other disease becomes too great.

His plan for Gastonia grew out of his purchase four years ago of a $30,000 investment property. In a phone interview, he said renovations didn't go as planned, and he came up with the idea to use one of two houses on the lot as a "hospice facility for people who want to die intentionally."

Exoo thought North Carolina would be a good location because it has no law specifically making assisted suicide a criminal act. (N.C. law allows a person to choose a natural death, free from unwanted medical treatment or life-prolonging measures. But it also says that "should not be construed to authorize any affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying.")

Thirty-six states, including South Carolina, have laws specifically prohibiting assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington and Montana.

Exoo said he expected people would come from other states to take advantage of his service in Gastonia. Unlike Michigan's Jack Kevorkian, the widely publicized "Dr. Death," Exoo said he had hoped to operate quietly, like a shelter for battered women.

But last week, after newspaper and TV reports generated "nasty" website comments from the public, Exoo said he's abandoning his plans. "It's been a nightmare," he said.

Exoo's idea would have run into other roadblocks anyway.

Zoning might have been a problem because his property is in a residential area. Also, hospices require state approval in North Carolina. Gaston Hospice has been in operation since 1981, and the current state plan doesn't call for another.

Beyond that, hospice isn't the right word for what Exoo was planning. The hospice movement is based on providing pain relief and spiritual and emotional comfort at the end of life. But it does not endorse suicide.

When I talked to Exoo, he didn't seem to have thought much about these details. His focus was on people who might want his assistance.

Link to the article in the Charlotte Observer: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/21/1707013/assisted-suicide-plan-shelved.html

A couple of years ago Jon Ronson, a film biographer from the UK, produced a film about Rev Georger Exoo that was televised in the UK entitled Reverend Death. Ronson came to the project as a supporter of euthanasia. While filming the biography of Exoo he became aware of many concerns related to Exoo and the euthanasia lobby in general.

Link to my blog comment about the film - Rev Death: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/euthanasia-advocates-fail-to-distance.html

Link to the Reverend Death film on U-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/7/0VR7mK5hZwU

The Dutch euthanasia lobby makes plans to compete with Dignitas

An article published in the Dutch news explains that the Dutch association Right to Die (NVVE) is investigating opening an assisted suicide clinic for people who do not currently qualify under the Dutch euthanasia law.

The article states:

NVVE director Petra de Jong told the Volkskrant, 'but one that misses out patients with dementia or chronic psychiatric problems with a serious wish to die.'

Around 500 of these patients request assisted suicide each year and only eight are helped to die.

In other words, the new clinic would focus on people with dementia or chronic psychiatric problems, and possibly other difficult situations.

But why would NVVE need to establish a suicide clinic for these difficult cases?

First: Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas has proven that there is incredible profit in running a suicide clinic. Link to my previous blog comment on this fact: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/06/dignitas-founder-ludwig-minelli-is-now.html

Second: In 2006 at the World Federation of Right to Die Societies conference in Toronto, the then leader of the NVVE stated that their final goal was the legalization of the "last-will-pill". This is would be a suicide drug that could be taken by people who have decided that they have had enough of life.

I think that this clinic would be used for situations, including people who are "tired of living".

In other words, the clinic would be very profitable and it would allow the NVVE to push the thin boundaries of the law and possibly gain acceptance for the "last-will-pill".

The clinic would also enable NVVE to maintain a stronger membership base. Dignitas sells memberships with the membership fee giving them the right to use the clinic. If NVVE followed the same system they would increase their membership fee and ensure that people renewed their membership on a yearly basis.

Finally, if euthanasia and assisted suicide is about choice, then why would the NVVE be so concerned about arranging the deaths of people who are not capable of choosing?

This is obviously not an issue of choice. This is an issue of how society agrees to kill or cause the death of people based on whether society or the individual deems their life as not worth living.

Link to the original article: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2010/08/suicide_clinic_a_possibility.php

Switzerland planning to control assisted suicide?

BBC News reporter, Imogen Foulkes, had an article published on July 2, 2010 suggesting that the Swiss government will establish controls on the assisted suicide business. The article is very convincing that the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic is out-of-control in Switzerland, but I am not convinced that the government will establish effective rules to curb the assisted suicide business in Switzerland.

It is accurate to refer to assisted suicide in Switzerland as a business. There are groups in Switzerland who provide death to their clients for a fee. They are running a business.

Dignitas, the assisted suicide business that is operated by Ludwig Minelli, a retired lawyer, is more controversial than the other assisted suicide businesses, but only because of the actions, attitude and apparent motivation of Minelli, not because of what the actual business does.

Let me quote from the article by Foulkes that was published in the BBC:

Urns in the lake

The discovery of dozens of urns containing human ashes in Lake Zurich has served to focus attention once again on just what exactly assisted suicide groups are allowed to do.

It remains unclear who put the urns into the lake but there have been claims that Dignitas may have been involved: all the urns bore the label of the crematorium used by the organisation.

One German woman has come forward to say her stepmother's ashes were put in the lake by Dignitas, despite her wish to be buried next to her husband.

Soraya Wernli

And at least one former employee of Dignitas claims she was present when urns were dumped in the lake. Soraya Wernli says she left the organisation five years ago, after becoming concerned that Dignitas had become profit-motivated.

"Dignitas has become a business worth millions," she told the BBC.

Mrs Wernli, who says she remains a firm supporter of the right to choose the moment of death, has taken her concerns to the police, and she is in favour of more regulation for assisted suicide organisations.

More transparency

The founder of Dignitas, Ludwig Minelli, is firmly opposed.

Mr Minelli will not comment on the case of the urns, because it is the subject of an investigation, but, in a rare interview, he did agree to talk about how Dignitas works.

"There are no state rules but we have our own rules," Mr Minelli told the BBC. "The first is that we never precipitate an assisted suicide, every step must be initiated by the member and not by us."

Dignitas has helped more than 1,000 people die in the past 12 years, many of them foreigners who come to Switzerland precisely because their own countries do not permit assisted suicide, Mr Minelli explained.

Each individual pays an initial membership fee, typically around $200 (£133), followed by annual membership fees of $80 (£53). Further fees for the consultation and the assisted suicide itself run to around $7,000 (£4,700).

Some clients, however, are believed to have donated much larger sums.

This is all perfectly legal under Swiss law, as long as Dignitas and Mr Minelli are not making a profit out of it.

But there have been allegations in the Swiss media that Mr Minelli has become a millionaire since he founded Dignitas.

Mr Minelli refuses to discuss the organisation's finances.

"This is a private organisation," he explained. "Only the active members have a right to know the facts, and the public has no right at all. We are not working with public money, so there is no reason for us to answer questions."

The active members are Mr Minelli, and one other who prefers to remain anonymous.

Right to die for all

Mr Minelli and one of the doctors working for Dignitas, Alois Geiger, also defended the organisation's policy of providing services not just to the terminally ill, but to those with chronic illnesses and even mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Dr Geiger, for example, provided the prescription for the young British man Dan James, who committed suicide in Switzerland in 2008 after being paralysed in a rugby accident.

"Most people who come to me don't just say 'I want to die'", explained Dr Geiger. "What they say is: 'I don't want to live THIS life anymore.'

"If you have a person who is mentally ill, and it has gone on for years, never getting better, always getting worse, a person who has tried eight times to kill himself, why not give him the possibility to end this horrible life? Schizophrenia is a horrible illness."

Dr Geiger is referring to the case of a 39-year-old Spanish man with paranoid schizophrenia who died two years ago with the help of Dignitas.

The Zurich authorities have now ruled that Dr Geiger, a gynaecologist by training, did not have the required competence to assist his suicide and have removed his power to prescribe for the mentally ill.

Mr Minelli and Dr Geiger are now challenging that decision in court.

So then, what is the Swiss government actually preparing to do? Foulkes states in the BBC article:

Meanwhile the Swiss government has put forward two draft papers on assisted suicide, one of which would ban the practice altogether, and a second - the more likely to be approved - which would limit the practice to the terminally ill.

Patients would have to provide evidence from two independent doctors that their illness is incurable and that they are likely to die within months.

They would also need to show that they have made an informed decision, over a period of some time, to end their lives.

All these conditions would effectively end or fundamentally change the practices of Dignitas, whose foreign patients typically arrive in Switzerland, see a Dignitas doctor and die within 24 hours.

In other words, they hope to curb the business practises of Dignitas by attempting to assure that all those who the business provides death to are people who are at least dying and supposedly "choosing to die". These regulations would fail to protect people who are depressed and they would fail to protect people who are experiencing elder abuse.

But don't expect regulations soon. Foulkes states:

But any change to existing Swiss law is likely to be a long process.

Ludwig Minelli says he will take the government's proposals to a nationwide referendum if necessary.

"I am persuaded that we have to struggle in order to implement the last human right in our societies," he says.

"And the last human right is the right to make a decision on one's own end and the possibility to have this end without risk and without pain."

What Switzerland needs to do is commit itself to focus on: improving palliative care and the care and equality for people with disabilities, implement suicide prevention and elder abuse prevention programs.

Link to the article by Imogen Foulkes in the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10461894.stm

Link to previous blog articles about Ludwig Minelli and Dignitas:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2009/02/cashing-in-on-despair.html

http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/06/dignitas-founder-ludwig-minelli-is-now.html

http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2009/04/dignitas-founder-views-assisted-suicide.html

Dignitas founder, Ludwig Minelli, is making millions

Who says that assisted suicide is about compassion and choices?

Ludwig Minelli

Ludwig Minelli has become a millionaire in the ten years since he set up his Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland.

An article that was published in the Telegraph examined the real motivation for the Dignitas founder, Ludwig Minelli. They reported that he has become wealthy by selling memberships, assisting suicides and getting donations from his vulnerable clients.

The Telegraph newspaper reported:

A newspaper investigation has raised new questions about Dignitas and whether Ludwig Minelli, its founder and director, makes profit from his “mercy killings”.

Previously a human rights lawyer and an attorney at the Zurich bar, Mr Minelli had no taxable personal fortune registered when he set up his suicide clinic in 1998.

A decade later, the Beobachter investigation found, he had an annual taxable income of £98,000 and a personal fortune of over £1.2 million, wealth that includes a luxury villa.

Mr Minelli, who said he would take no salary from Dignitas when opening the clinic 12 years ago, has insisted that his wealth comes from an inheritance, left by his mother.

But the cost of a simple suicide at Dignitas has risen from £1,800 in 2005 to £4,500, fuelling suspicions that the clinic may not be sticking to Swiss laws that are supposed to prevent people “selfishly” profiting from assisted suicide.

The cost of the clinic’s full service, including funerals, medical costs and official fees, is as high as £7,000.

Andreas Brunner, a Swiss prosecutor, has accused Mr Minelli, and Dignitas, of hiding behind Swiss privacy laws to refuse publication of their accounts for the last five years.

Soraya Wernli

”We have never had a good look at their book-keeping but in order to demand that we need a good reason and a concrete example that there is something suspicious to investigate,” he said. “He has promised for years to make the accounts public but it has never happened.”

Dignitas has faced criticism for accepting donations from suicide clients, one patient is said to have signed over more than £60,000.

Soraya Wernli, a nurse employed by Dignitas between 2003 and 2005, has accused the organisation of being a “production line of death concerned only with profits”.

In April this year, police divers found over 60 cremation urns dumped in Lake Zurich. Each of the urns bore the logo of the Nordheim crematorium used by Dignitas.

Mr Minelli, in an interview in March, insisted that Dignitas did not make profits for personal gain but claimed that Swiss law did not prevent money being made from euthanasia.

”If you are helping and abetting without selfish motives, this is quite legal,” he told the American PBS broadcaster.

”If you would take a lot of money for this service, then it might be selfish. But if somebody would do it for normal profit, it would even still be legal. But Dignitas is not working for profit. We are an association, and the association does not make profit. If we make profit, we will take this profit in order to have a higher quality of our services.”

At the same time Stuart Weisberg, a psychiatrist, announced plans to open a Dignitas style suicide clinic in Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal. The Oregon Medical Board has temporarily stopped Weisberg by suspending his license to practise medicine in Oregon. Nonetheless, the law in Oregon does not prevent doctors from competing with Compassion & Choices by setting up lucrative suicide clinics.

At the same time Compassion & Choices has also been able to turn assisted suicide into a lucrative fund raising business with reported income from donations and services in the millions.

Link to a previous article about the Dignitas Clinic: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/7851615/Dignitas-founder-is-millionaire.html