‘Right to die’ should go beyond terminally ill, says medical group

More and more Swiss are choosing to end their lives by assisted suicide. Keystone

The Swiss Academy of Medical Science has come out in favour of extending physician-assisted suicide to people living with intolerable pain.

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The academy proposed that doctors should be able to help patients who suffer an unbearable amount of pain from a medical condition even if their illness isn’t terminal, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche reported on Sunday.

+Learn more about the right to die in Switzerland

By contrast, the Association of Swiss Doctors (ASD) rejects widening the scope of physician-assisted suicide. This would remove doctors from the original goal of helping people suffering from an incurable and terminal illness, ASD said to the French-language newspaper.

In recent years, the number of Swiss seeking assisted suicide services of private organisations such as Exit or Dignitas continued to grow steadily. Most Swiss are in favour of being able to choose when and how they end their lives and would even support direct active euthanasia, a practice currently outlawed in the country.