Dignitas (non-profit organisation)

For people with severe psychiatric illness, an in-depth medical report prepared by a psychiatrist is additionally required per a Swiss Supreme Court decision.

In two referendums on 15 May 2011, voters in the Canton of Zürich overwhelmingly rejected calls to ban assisted suicide or to outlaw the practice for non-residents.

[7] In September 2007, Dignitas was evicted, blocked or locked out of three flats, and so Minelli offered assisted suicide in his private house.

In October 2007, Dignitas was again prevented from working in a private house by the local council and refused rooms on an industrial site.

In the Dignitas program, criteria include that the person; In certain right-to-die organisations, an age restriction is in place for potential patients, so as to prevent young people from using their services.

[10] The person who wishes to die attends two private consultations (separated by time) with several Dignitas personnel in addition to an independent medical doctor who assesses the evidence provided by the patient in advance.

[11] Legally admissible proof that the person wishes to die is also created in the form of a signed affidavit countersigned by independent witnesses.

[citation needed] In general, Dignitas uses the following protocol to assist death: an oral dose of an antiemetic drug, followed approximately half an hour later by a lethal overdose of 15 grams of powdered pentobarbital dissolved in a glass of water.

[17] Under Swiss law, Dignitas operates as a non-profit organization, but does not open its finances to the public,[18] which has elicited criticism from some quarters.

[20] The BBC produced a film titled A Short Stay in Switzerland, telling the story of Dr Anne Turner, who made the journey to the Dignitas assisted suicide facility.

The documentary received a highly polarized reaction in the United Kingdom, with much praise for the programme as "brave", "sensitive"[24] and "important"[25] whilst it also gathered accusations of "pro-death" bias from anti-euthanasia pressure groups and of encouraging the view that disability was a good reason for killing from disability groups.

BBC featured an article regarding the death of UK citizen Jeffrey Spector, a businessman who decided to travel to Switzerland to undergo assisted suicide through Dignitas for an inoperable tumour which most likely would have caused paralysis later on in its development.

[28] The book Me Before You and the film adaptation of the same name discuss the organization as it serves a vital function in both the main plot and the characters' lives.