Assisted suicide group Exit registered 10,000 new members in 2017
One reason for the consistently high demand for assisted suicide is our aging society.
Keystone
Last year, some 10,078 new members joined the euthanasia organisation Exit, the group announced on Tuesday. The number of actual assisted suicides went down slightly, whilst the average age of Exit members rose.
At the end of December 2017, the organisation had 110,391 members in German-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino, according to the figures in the press releaseExternal link. Last year, 734 people ended their lives using Exit’s services, compared with 723 the previous year.
More
More
Growing number of people sign up for assisted suicide
This content was published on
Every year, thousands of people become members of Exit, the largest assisted suicide organisation in Switzerland. Last year was no exception.
The number of requests from people thinking about assisted suicide was about 3,500 – that’s 1,000 more than in 2014. Exit considered 1,031 of those requests, compared with 991 in 2016.
The number of people choosing “an end of their suffering with the help of Exit” was 734 in 2017, the organisation wrote. Although men are generally much more likely to commit suicide, the majority of people using assisted suicide with Exit are women (60%).
Increased average age
Possible reasons for this consistently high demand for assisted suicide include the steady surge in membership year-on-year, but also an increasingly aging society. Last year, the average age of a person using Exit’s services increased to 78.1 years, from 76.7 years in 2016.
As in previous years, the most common conditions for which people sought the help of Exit were terminal cancer, age-related multiple illnesses as well as chronic pain.
Most of Exit’s patients came from the Zurich area, followed by the cantons of Bern, Aargau, St Gallen, Basel City and Basel Country.
Despite the recent expansion of palliative care, for which Exit has campaigned for 27 years, euthanasia fulfils a need among the population, the association said.
Assisted suicides remain rare, however, accounting only for about 1.5% of all 66,000 deaths in Switzerland each year, according to Exit.
Popular Stories
More
Culture
Wealth is not all: how gentrification in Zurich has led to housing shortage
Should Switzerland take measures to support its struggling industries?
Industrial policies are back in fashion, not only in the United States but also in the EU. Should Switzerland, where various industries are struggling, draw inspiration from such policies?
Switzerland increasingly a target for people smuggling and trafficking
This content was published on
Switzerland is increasingly being targeted by organized crime. This also applies to commercial people smuggling, the fastest growing criminal market in Europe.
Swiss forests better equipped against storms 25 years after Lothar
This content was published on
Twenty-five years ago, Hurricane Lothar toppled trees like dominoes in Switzerland. Forests today are better prepared to cope with such an exceptional event, say experts.
This content was published on
The Locarno Film Festival is considering moving from the beginning of August to the second half of July for its 80th edition in 2027.
Council of Europe head Alain Berset visits Georgia
This content was published on
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, is visiting Georgia, which has been rocked by a political crisis, from Wednesday.
Swiss politician who shot at Jesus faces criminal proceedings
This content was published on
The Zurich public prosecutor's office has opened criminal proceedings against politician Sanija Ameti. It is investigating whether she disrupted freedom of religion and worship.
Switzerland must be able to control immigration, says head of business federation
This content was published on
Switzerland must be able to control immigration itself if it "exceeds the tolerable limits", says Christoph Mäder, president of Economiesuisse, the Swiss Business Federation.
This content was published on
The film Reinas by Klaudia Reynicke, a Swiss-Peruvian-Spanish co-production, has missed out on an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Assisted suicides increase in Switzerland
This content was published on
The latest numbers on assisted suicides in Switzerland show a 26% increase over the previous year. The vast majority of those who died by assisted suicide were terminally ill. 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…
This content was published on
The issue came to light through the case of an 82-year-old Zurich woman who is suffering from a serious disease and would like to end her life. However, both a suicide aid organisation and cantonal authorities denied her a prescription for the deadly drug sodium pentobarbital on the grounds that her illness is not terminal.…
Most Swiss want doctor’s advice on end of life choices
This content was published on
The vice-president of Exit, Marion Schafroth, said at a press conference in Zurich on Tuesday that the survey results would help them lay the groundwork for “intensive discussions with doctors”. She also called for assisting with suicide to be a “voluntary medical activity”. A large majority of people in the survey, 94%, wanted neutral information…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.