A penal court in Switzerland is placed for a dilemma. It has to make a decision on a matter which up till now the Government and Parliament have been running away from: “how active are medical end-of-life actions and how are these juridically valued?”
The assistance given by a doctor to a patient with Lou Gehrig’s disease who really wanted to die, is described as being “active”. It had to be, since the patient was fully paralyzed, could only move a toe and signalled on a virtual button the “yes”-button, after which the doctor released the drip containing the NaP.
The doctor did not accept the fine she got and appealed. She considers she has done less then doctors who intentionally (over)dose morphine and then wait till the patient dies.
The verdict – expected beginning of December this year – can easily be groundbreaking. If the doctor is acquitted it could mean that the support given by the Swiss RtD Societies can be “more active”.
On the EXIT Deutsche Schweiz website you can find an article (in German) about the case.