Dignitas founder dies of assisted suicide at 92

The founder of Swiss right-to-die group Dignitas has died via euthanasia, the organization said.

Ludwig Minelli, 92, died Saturday, days short of his 93rd birthday.

The organization paid tribute to Minelli, saying he lived a “life of freedom of choice, self-determination and human rights.”

Minelli founded Dignitas in 1998, and since then it has helped thousands of people die.

In recent decades, some countries have changed their stance on assisted dying, with Australia, Canada and New Zealand introducing laws. The UK House of Lords is currently debating euthanasia bill.

Critics of legalization say it could lead to disabled and vulnerable people being forced to take their own lives.

Many people who receive help from Dignitas have traveled to Switzerland because their country does not allow assisted dying.

Minelli fought passionately throughout his life for the right to die, giving Dignity the slogan “Live with dignity, die with dignity.”

exist Interviewed by BBC in 2010“I believe that we must fight hard to implement in our society the last human right. The last human right is the right to decide for one’s own ends and the possibility of achieving this without risk and suffering,” he said.

Minelli began his career as a journalist for the German news magazine Der Spiegel before studying law and developing an interest in human rights.

After founding Dignitas, he faced numerous legal challenges and successfully appealed to the Swiss Supreme Court several times.

Dignitas said in a statement that his work has had a lasting impact, pointing to a 2011 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that affirmed the right of a person with judgment to decide how and when to end his or her life.

Euthanasia – when doctors use lethal drugs to deliberately end a person’s life to relieve suffering – is illegal in Switzerland.

But assisted dying, in which a person receives lethal drugs from a doctor and then takes them himself, has been legal for decades.

In a statement, Dignitas said it would continue to “manage and develop the association in the spirit of its founders, building it into a professional and combative international organization for self-determination and freedom of choice during life and at the end of life.”

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