In these cantons, homes and hospitals must provide assisted suicide

It is a good example of federally justified inequality: an 84-year-old woman lives in a nursing home in the canton of St.Gallen. She no longer wants to live and wants to end her existence painlessly with the help of the Exit association. But because her nursing home doesn’t allow assisted suicide, she has to do it elsewhere or do without. It would be different if the woman lived in a house in the canton of Geneva. There, the operators of the homes and hospitals are not allowed to refuse their residents assisted suicide within their own four walls.

In the canton of Valais, it will also be regulated in a similar way in the future: voters recently approved a corresponding law with a clear majority of over 76 percent. Residents of homes and hospitals who want to end their lives with assisted suicide will no longer have to leave their homes.

Until now, each institution in Valais could decide for itself whether it wanted to allow assisted suicide in its own buildings or not. In the future, this should be possible in all retirement homes, care centers and hospitals. The canton of Geneva also has a similar law. In the cantons of Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura and Graubünden, the scheme only applies to institutions receiving public funding. In the other cantons, it is up to the homes and hospitals themselves whether they want to allow assisted suicide or not.

The supporters of the regulation now in force in Valais advocate the personal freedom and dignity of the persons concerned. This is only guaranteed if assisted suicide can be carried out within one’s own four walls. “The right of self-determination of the individual person is above the right of self-determination of the individual institutions,” says Danièle Bersier, media spokeswoman for the Exit association, who accompanies Freitode. And Dignitas is also advocating that state-funded institutions across Switzerland should allow assisted suicide. The association wants to end the cantonal patchwork and end “unequal treatment”.

To this end, Dignitas and Exit have not only successfully lobbied in the canton of Valais. Appropriate approaches have also been proposed in other cantons. This spring, for example, the cantonal council of Zurich dealt with a parliamentary initiative by the SP, Greens and GLP, which wanted to oblige all retirement homes in the canton to grant access to suicide aid organisations. While the initiative found a narrow majority in May, the tide turned at second reading in October. A centrist politician demanded renewed discussion with a motion to return — proposing to release private institutions from the obligation. His application was narrowly accepted.

The Supreme Court has also considered the issue. The Salvation Army, as operator of retirement homes, had filed a complaint against a facility in the canton of Neuchâtel that has been in effect since 2015. The law in force there stipulates that public institutions may not refuse assisted suicide to their patients. The Salvation Army felt that this arrangement was contrary to freedom of religion or belief. The federal Supreme Court was different: It concluded that the Salvation Army must also allow euthanasia in its government-sponsored institutions. Whether you live at home or in a public institution: the freedom to choose suicide must be guaranteed to everyone.

Given the increasing number of people using assisted suicide, the subject should soon be on the agenda in other cantons as well. According to the latest figures from the Federal Bureau of Statistics, 1,251 assisted suicides were committed in Switzerland in 2020. People from Zurich and Geneva make the most use of this opportunity.