Switzerland No Longer Wants To Foot The Bill For 'Suicide Tourism'

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) In Switzerland, all deaths through assisted suicide must be followed by a medical and legal investigation. This entails considerable costs for the state. Canton Solothurn has now found a way to pass this bill on to people who come to Switzerland from abroad to die. They must also be filmed while committing the final act.

This content was published on February 21, 2025 - 09:00 10 minutes

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The camera image shows a person lying on a bed. They reach out to a drip and open a valve. At once, the lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital starts flowing into their blood.

Such videos are at the core of an agreement, unprecedented in Switzerland, that was signed late last year between canton Solothurn and the right-to-die organisation Pegasos. Under the new arrangement, if Pegasos provides video evidence that the suicide was carried out by the person themselves, as well as additional information, then the authorities do not send in a legal and medical team to investigate the death.

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Thus, instead of the police, medical examiner and public prosecutor all hastening to the scene of the death, the body is transferred to nearby canton Basel City for examination by the forensic medicine institute there.

This reduces the costs of the post-mortem investigation to between CHF1,000 ($1,110) and CHF2,000 per case. What is more, the bill is paid by the right-to-die organisation, and therefore ultimately by the person who wanted to die.

According to Pegasos, the costs are subsumed in the total price of assisted suicide, which amounts to around CHF10,000 per person, be it with Pegasos or other, similar organisations in Switzerland.

Families can now grieve in peace

Thanks to the agreement, which came into effect in December, canton Solothurn can cut some high costs. Previously, each assisted suicide by a person resident abroad cost the canton around CHF3,000.

“We get a better result in terms of evidence in this way. The new arrangement also eases the burden on the public purse and on human resources,” says Solothurn's chief prosecutor, Hansjürg Brodbeck. The authorities, meanwhile, reserve the right to carry out random checks.

According to Pegasos, the agreement above all helps to ensure a more dignified setting for the relatives. The farewell and grieving process is now no longer interrupted by the appearance of the criminal investigation team, the organisation wrote in response to a request.“This disturbed the family's privacy in an intimate moment. Family and friends had to wait until the official procedures were completed.”

Numbers predicted to double

The Solothurn model has attracted a lot of attention in Switzerland. This is because other cantons are also saddled with the investigation costs and find their human resources stretched.

Lately, over 1,700 Swiss residents a year have committed assisted suicide. In addition, over 500 people from abroad travel to Switzerland for this purpose each year. And demand is increasing: observers expect the number of assisted suicides in Switzerland to double by 2035.

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Various cantons have tried to find ways to avoid the costs of assisted suicides in the past. These have all failed, however, because the obligation to investigate is enshrined in the Swiss Criminal Procedure CodeExternal link , which lays down, in article 253, that a medical examination of the body must be carried out“if there are indications that a death did not occur naturally”. And as assisted suicide is considered an unnatural death, the usual interpretation is that it must be investigated ex officio.

Some cantons have nonetheless managed to reduce their investigation costs, often in consultation with the right-to-die organisations. But the Solothurn model is unique because of the voluntary coverage of the costs by Pegasos.

A different solution is needed

Many organisations, however, do not see this as a real solution, as it makes supporting people's end-of-life wishes more expensive for them.

Exit Deutsche Schweiz, the country's largest assisted suicide organisation, is therefore calling for assisted suicide to be treated as a special category of unnatural death.

The president of the organisation Lifecircle, Erika Preisig , agrees.“It is time to stop criminalising this peaceful way of dying with police investigations,” she says.“The costs thus incurred are unnecessary.”

Lifecircle also films those who want to die while they commit suicide. This makes the cause of death absolutely clear, Preisig says.“Our aim is that the authorities accept another way of dying.”

'Natural death' in Belgium

After Switzerland, Belgium is the country that attracts the second-highest number of non-residents wishing to die. Many of them come from France. According to the Belgian Law on EuthanasiaExternal link , adopted in 2002, assisted suicide is a natural death.

“This was mainly done with regard to insurance contracts,” explains Jacqueline Herremans, lawyer and president of the Association for the Right to Die in Dignity Belgium.“It is actually what the doctor has to write on the death certificate.”

In Belgium, unlike in Switzerland, assisted suicide is generally active, meaning that a doctor administers the lethal infusion. An ethics committee elected by parliament is responsible for oversight. It comprises eight doctors, four lawyers and four people with demonstrable experience in dealing with terminally ill people.

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