Dignitas (association)

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DIGNITAS Live humanely - die humanely
logo
purpose «DIGNITAS - Live humanely - Die humanely»
Chair: Ludwig A. Minelli
Establishment date: May 17, 1998
Number of members: 9,822
Number of employees: approx. 32 internal and external part-time contributors
Seat : Forch ZH
Website: http://www.dignitas.ch/

The association DIGNITAS - to live humanely - to die humanely (Dignitas, Latin for dignity ) is a Swiss association based in Forch , municipality of Maur , canton of Zurich , which, according to its own statements, advocates a comprehensive right of self-determination even at the end of life and its members on request Offers counseling, accompaniment and assistance in suicide or more precisely suicide accompaniment . It was founded on May 17, 1998 by the journalist and lawyer Ludwig A. Minelli .

Since its founding until the end of 2019, the association helped 3,027 people in an accompanied suicide; At the same time, according to internal estimates, he is said to have helped 30,000 to 40,000 people to abandon a desire to commit suicide. He is particularly committed to the prevention of suicides and, above all, suicide attempts.

membership

The association essentially consists of what it calls beneficiary members without voting rights; Only Minelli and one of his daughters, who had been replaced by another person for a long time, were the only members entitled to vote within the meaning of association law. According to the current statutes of the association, Minelli can, as "general secretary" - that is, association president and manager in one person - decide on all membership admission and can also exclude members again.

With a one-time entry fee of CHF 200 and an annual membership fee of at least CHF 80, members receive support in enforcing living wills and help with other conflicts with authorities, doctors or home management. In addition, in the event of a serious illness, there is the option of suicide assistance in Switzerland. A special membership fee of CHF 4,000 is levied for the preparation of assisted suicide and CHF 2,500 for its implementation. For foreigners, the total costs including doctor, undertaker, cremation and administrative procedures of around € 9,700. Members who live in very modest circumstances can apply for a reduction in or cancellation of these contributions based on the statutes.

At the end of 2019, Dignitas had 9,822 members from 100 countries. 794 of them are resident in Switzerland, 3,725 in Germany, 1,112 in France and 1,430 in Great Britain.

Dignitas Germany

The German association, which is only contractually associated with the Swiss association, has been operating as Dignitas - Humane Living - Humane Dying (Section Germany) eV since it was founded on September 26, 2005 and initially used the abbreviation Dignitas Germany based in Hanover, which after a lawsuit by German interest group for traffic accident victims eV dignitas (after a reorganization now called DIVO ) was temporarily changed to Dignitate . In response to this establishment of Dignitas in Germany, the federal states of Saarland , Hesse and Thuringia introduced a bill to the Federal Council in 2006 to make commercial promotion of suicide a criminal offense. Dignitas Germany, on the other hand, has stated in an extensive comment that, in its opinion, the draft is contrary to the constitution and also runs counter to the European Convention on Human Rights. The draft was stuck in the three committees Law (leading), Health and Home Affairs of the Federal Council. An attempt by the two federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria to save the basic idea of ​​a ban with a modified draft was subsequently adopted by the Legal and Health Committees, but not by the Interior Committee, which had recommended that no law be passed. Since it had been shown in advance that it would not have been possible to achieve a majority for such a draft in the Bundesrat, the chairman of the SPD, Kurt Beck , agreed with Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 3, 2008 to avoid a controversy and reached an agreement with the Federal Council Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Günther Oettinger on a minimal program. In the plenary session on July 4, 2008, all drafts were postponed and a resolution was passed in their place, according to which a legal regulation would be deemed necessary in 2008. The then Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries therefore did not believe that such a law would be possible as long as the organizations declare that they did not want to make any profits.

On May 7, 2010, the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate introduced a draft law on the criminal liability of advertising for assisted suicide in the Federal Council. This draft also got stuck in the committees. Although it was put on the agenda of the 876th plenary session of the Federal Council on November 5, 2010 for a plenary session, it was finally removed again without a reason.

In the coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU and FDP for the 17th electoral term of the Bundestag, these parties had agreed to make "the commercial mediation of suicide opportunities (...) a criminal offense". The federal cabinet passed a corresponding bill on August 29, 2012. However, since the CDU / CSU was unable to come to an agreement with the FDP on whether only commercial or business - i.e. only repeated - visits should be recorded, the project was dropped.

In the 18th electoral term of the Bundestag, the issue was left out of the coalition negotiations and it was decided to leave it to group proposals. This led to the insertion of Section 217 into the Criminal Code, which has been in force since December 10, 2015. It is based on the Brand / Griese group proposal, which is essentially based on a draft made by the German Foundation for Patient Protection - a work of the Catholic Order of Malta. The provision has now been challenged as unconstitutional with 13 complaints to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. After this provision came into force, Dignitas Germany reduced its advisory services to questions of living wills, power of attorney, palliative medicine and passive euthanasia, since any open-ended advice on a conceivable suicide can already be prosecuted as a criminal offense. Germans who wanted open-ended advice on suicide issues could only get advice from Dignitas in Switzerland. After the German Federal Constitutional Court declared § 217 StGB null and void on February 26, 2020, the association's services are slowly being rebuilt in Germany. Dignitas and the German Society for Human Dying (DGHS) jointly set up the platform ''schluss.PUNKT' ' on March 4, 2020 . On the free telephone number 0800 80 22 400, easy-to-reach, open-ended advice is offered from Monday to Friday between 12:00 and 14:00.

Procedure for assisted suicide

According to Dignitas, experienced and qualified employees hold “in-depth discussions” with the member in order to clarify whether the wish to die really only corresponds to the declared will of the competent member.

Next, a doctor - usually the family doctor, otherwise a Swiss doctor who works with the association - must, after studying the medical records, declare that he is willing to issue a prescription for the deadly drug pentobarbital in the appropriate dosage .

After the “provisional green light”, an appointment can be made for suicide accompaniment. However, according to a study, around 70% of the members who received such a provisional green light no longer report at all; a further 16%, who do notify themselves again, do not make use of assisted suicide. The study certifies Dignitas successful suicide prophylaxis in 86.4%.

Before the doctor (usually the one who gave the “provisional green light” beforehand) finally decides to issue a prescription for the deadly drug, he first conducts two personal interviews with the person who is willing to die in Switzerland. If the doctor is then still convinced that the suicide accompaniment is appropriate for the Dignitas member, he will issue the desired prescription.

Accompanied suicides often takes place in the presence of relatives and at least two witnesses in a location rented by Dignitas. In order to save relatives and members of the accompanying team from having to be questioned by the police, the last act in the member's life was previously documented with a video camera: physical evidence that the member was able to carry out this last act himself and thus had full authority . However, this has since been abandoned.

Because every suicide is legally regarded as an “extraordinary death” in Switzerland, the police are informed of a death. In each case, this examines the exact circumstances of death. The lack of “selfish motives” ( Art. 115 StGB ) is decisive for the legality of assisted suicide ; a "normal financial compensation" for the services provided cannot justify this.

criticism

It used to be said that the association polarized strongly and influenced the public discussion on euthanasia . Its founder was accused of trivializing suicide to exert moral pressure on seriously ill people who then put their lives to an end in order not to be a burden to society or their relatives. This has changed significantly following the clear referendums on May 15, 2011 in the Canton of Zurich. In addition, Dignitas was repeatedly accused of supporting mentally ill people in suicide; According to a federal court decision , however, this is "under certain circumstances" - in the judgment there is talk of an "in-depth psychiatric expert opinion" - in the case of persons capable of judgment, in the sense of a so-called accounting suicide . In contrast to other euthanasia organizations, Dignitas also provides euthanasia to people from abroad, which is why its opponents speak of euthanasia . Dignitas, on the other hand, speaks of freedom tourism : people who want to take the freedom to commit suicide often have no other option than to do so in Switzerland with Dignitas because the laws of their own country do not allow such a possibility. The use of this option has developed differently: In the canton of Zurich, 33 people were accompanied to their deaths in 2000, 5 of them from abroad; In 2006 there were 221, 174 of them foreigners. In 2009 and 2010 the number of foreigners accompanied by Dignitas was below 100. In 2012 there were 185 people from abroad.

In a detailed interview with Weltwoche in 2004, Minelli commented on many fundamental questions and points of criticism. In a conversation with Rote Fahne magazine on the occasion of the founding of the German association in Hanover in autumn 2005, he criticized the attitude of the church and politics as hypocritical, citing Thomas More and his novel Utopia . On the other hand, more ecclesiastical-minded people claim that he completely contradicts the intention of the author, who wrote in the form of satire against the inhumane circumstances of his time and in no way supported suicide.

The Dignitas forum

The association has maintained the Dignitas forum on the Internet since 2007; it has been looked after by a professional mediator since 2011.

Political decisions

Canton Zurich

In the canton of Zurich , a place 15 May 2011 referendum held in which the voters with a vote ratio of approximately 85:15% against a ban on suicide assistance ( "stop suicide help!") And at about 78:22% against a restriction this aid to people who have lived in the canton of Zurich for at least one year (“No to tourism to the death”). Both proposals were submitted as popular initiatives by the Swiss Federal Democratic Union (EDU) of the Canton of Zurich . The prohibition initiative demanded that the canton of Zurich should demand at the federal level that any assisted suicide should in future be considered a crime. On October 3, 2012, the government council of the Canton of Zurich informed the Cantonal Council u. a. to renounce cantonal legislation on organized euthanasia.

Federation

The Swiss Federal Council decided on 29 June 2011. at the request of Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga to definitively renounce a legal regulation on organized assisted suicide. The existing regulations in the penal code as well as in the decrees that regulate the trade in medicinal and narcotic drugs are sufficient to be able to record any abuses. In addition, the government is stressing on promoting suicide prevention and palliative care . This meant that earlier attempts to obtain a legal regulation or even a practically complete ban on organized assisted suicide were dropped. A need for legislation had previously been signaled from various sides, but it had been shown that nowhere would a single opinion have received a majority in all detailed questions. Sommaruga explained the decision of the Federal Council in a half-hour interview on the show Sternstunde religion of Swiss television on 28 August 2011. Two civil initiatives in the cantons of Aargau and Basel-Land , which aimed at the adoption of national legislation, failed in the Parliament; the Council of States gave them no response on December 21, 2011 without a vote; the National Council rejected this and other proposals on September 26, 2012 by 163 votes to 11.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dignitas himself speaks of accompanying suicide ; for similarities and differences suicide and suicide see Suizid
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ a b Urs Willmann: Dignitas is a dictatorial association . In: Die Zeit No. 44 of October 27, 2005
  4. ↑ http://www.dignitas.ch/images/stories/pdf/informations-broschuere-dignitas-d.pdf
  5. ↑ Articles of Association , Art. 9, Paragraph 6
  6. ↑ [2] (PDF; 5 kB)
  7. ↑ German Federal Council: Draft of a law prohibiting the commercial brokerage of opportunities for suicide (PDF; 55 kB), March 27, 2006
  8. ↑ Commentary on the legislative proposal of the states of Saarland, Thuringia, Hesse ( Memento from July 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, archive version; 220 kB)
  9. ↑ Recommendations (PDF; 34 kB)
  10. ↑ Resolution (PDF; 16 kB)
  11. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Leersch: perplexity in the Federal Council - DEATH AID –Das Parliament 28/2008 Article by Hans-Jürgen Leersch in the Parliament 28/2008
  12. ↑ See also: Länder dispute over euthanasia law , from Spiegel online from July 1, 2008
  13. ↑ Legal proposal on the criminal liability of advertising for assisted suicide (PDF) ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.mjv.rlp.de
  14. ↑ Plenary Minutes-876 (PDF; 430 kB)
  15. ↑ Coalition Agreement (PDF; 643 kB) ( Memento from November 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ BMJ press release of August 29, 2012 ( Memento of February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  17. ↑ It's good that this law failed , article by Gian Domenico Borasio in Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 10, 2013, (PDF; 76 kB)
  18. ↑ [3]
  19. ↑ [4]
  20. ↑ [5]
  21. ↑ http://www.dignitas.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&lang=de
  22. ↑ SF 1 : Council of States wants greater control of euthanasia ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Contribution to the show 10vor10 , June 21, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.srf.ch
  23. ↑ Accompanying suicide by year and place of residence (PDF; 11 kB)
  24. ^ Peter Holenstein : Corpses as hostages , Weltwoche , No. 22/2004.
  25. ↑ Conversation with the weekly newspaper Rote Fahne , No. 40, from October 6, 2005
  26. ↑ Stefan Hohler, Michael Meier: "The death tourism initiative only costs". In: Tages-Anzeiger . January 15, 2011 (Interview with Dignitas founder Ludwig A. Minelli)
  27. ↑ Rejection to the moralists The Zurich sovereign rejects the two EDU initiatives on assisted suicide surprisingly clearly
  28. ^ Extract from the minutes of the government council of the Canton of Zurich
  29. ↑ Suizidhilfe: Strengthening the right to self-determination (media release of June 29, 2011)
  30. ↑ Assisted suicide in Switzerland: Interview with Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga ( memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Video) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.srf.ch
  31. ^ Official Bulletin of the Council of States of December 21, 2011
  32. ^ Official Bulletin of the National Council of September 26, 2012