There are several important factors that frame assisted dying in Switzerland.
- The Swiss Penal Code allows for assisted suicide, as long as the motive of those assisting is not selfish.
- Those assisting the person to die need not be a doctor. Anyone can assist as long as their motive is altruistic.
Furthermore under Swiss law, the person requesting the assistance to die must possess:
- decision-making capacity; and
- they must have ‘control’ or ‘ownership of the action’ over their death (‘Tatherrschaft’ in German). (See Art. 115 StGB of the Swiss Penal Code & the decision of the Swiss Federal Court BGE 133 I 58).
The above criteria means that a person must be of sound mind. While there is a presumption that those applying to Pegasos will have capacity, if a neurological or mental health diagnosis is present, a consultation with the Pegasos psychiatrist will be required.
The second criteria has been legally interpreted to mean that it is the person, themselves, who must push the button or lift the glass of the liquid to their mouth and so on. This is what makes a death at Pegasos a Voluntary Assisted Death (VAD), rather than doctor-administered ‘euthanasia’.
Even though Pegasos offers VAD using intravenous transfusion, and even though it is a doctor who will insert the cannula into the person’s arm, it is the person, themselves, who must activate the drip delivering the drug.
If a person has limited movement in their hands and arms, then Pegasos has developed an ingenious device that requires a simple bump to start the infusion. No need to worry.