EXIT’s board of directors had wanted to restrict the service to within the borders of Switzerland as it was becoming difficult to obtain the necessary documentation from abroad and to arrange journeys to Switzerland.
But earlier this year, Swiss media reported that the proposal was not being viewed favourably by members. For this reason, EXIT’s directors decided to drop the proposal.
“Due to the resistance, the association’s board decided to keep the current membership requirements unchanged,” EXIT Vice President Jürg Wiler said in a statementExternal link.
Only around 1% of the 913 people who used EXIT’s services last year lived abroad.
Swiss law tolerates assisted suicide when patients commit the act themselves and helpers have no vested interest in their death. Assisted suicide has been legal in the country since the 1940s.
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Yoshi travels from Japan to Switzerland to die
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A Japanese man came all the way to Switzerland to die. SWI swissinfo.ch accompanied him on the final part of his journey. This is his story.
To what extent do you think assisted suicide should be a legally available option to those who want to end their lives?
Switzerland legalised assisted suicide in the 1940s. More than 1,000 seriously ill or disabled people end their lives with the help of suicide assistants in Switzerland each year.
What do you think Switzerland’s Alain Berset can bring to the Council of Europe?
The former interior minister is to become the first Swiss Secretary General of the Council of Europe – which issues should his five-year term focus on?
How is your country dealing with the return of stolen artifacts?
Western nations like Switzerland often have to deal with the process of recovering or returning looted artifacts which have been illegally imported. What’s the situation like in your country?
Swiss cinemas report drop in admissions in first half of 2024
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The decline in cinema-goers has continued so far this year. Swiss films and smaller cinemas are holding up better than big US productions and multiplex.
Spread of Japanese beetle leads to lawn-watering bans in Basel
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Basel City authorities have extended an infestation zone with strict guidelines to a good third of the canton’s territory.
Bad weather forces closure of many Swiss hiking trails
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Some 620 trails are still closed due to the extreme weather this summer, with the canton of Valais particularly hard hit.
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The two cities have beaten off Zurich and Bern to make it onto the shortlist to host the Europe-wide singing extravaganza next May.
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Construction expenditure rose by 0.3% last year in nominal terms, but the price-adjusted situation reveals a 2.5% drop, statistics show.
Another body found in southern Switzerland after June storms
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The body found in the Maggia river in Ticino on Thursday is “likely” to be the sixth victim of storms last month, police said.
Swiss helicopter rescue pioneers safe autopilot approach system
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Swiss air rescue company Rega has received approval for a new kind of instrument flight system for approaching a hospital.
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.
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Yoshi travels from Japan to Switzerland to die
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A Japanese man came all the way to Switzerland to die. SWI swissinfo.ch accompanied him on the final part of his journey. This is his story.
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In August last year, the group warned that legal hurdles to euthanasia in other countries were making it increasingly difficult to offer its services to people outside of Switzerland. At the time, some 2,600 EXIT members lived abroad. The organisation asked members if it should stop its services at Swiss borders. But according to the…
Assisted suicide option remains in demand in Switzerland
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There were no reported assisted suicides due to Covid-19, but the pandemic did force EXIT to reduce its activities between March 20 and May 20 last year, the organisation said on Monday. EXIT Deutsche Schweiz, which covers the German and Italian-speaking parts of the country, saw a rise of 51 assisted suicides as it helped…
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Between 1991 and 2011 the Swiss suicide rate fell from 20.7 per 100,000 population to 11.2 per 100,000 – a period which also saw a dramatic increase in antidepressant use across Europe. A London School of Economics study published in the online journal PLOS ONE earlier this year found that antidepressant use among 29 European…
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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.