Dignitas founder cleared of profiteering charges

The founder of Swiss assisted suicide organisation Dignitas has been cleared by a Zurich court on charges of profiteering.

Ludwig Minelli, founder of one of Switzerland’s best known assisted suicide organisation Dignitas, has been cleared by a Zurich district court on charges of profiteering, in the first case of its kind in Switzerland.

Dignitas has been in business for 20 years as a non-profit organisation and is a well-known destination in Switzerland for foreigners looking for an assisted suicide.

Minelli receives $136,000 in court costs compensation from the public purse. This is to go towards the costs of his lawyer.

The prosecutor argued that Minelli had used “unauthorised commercial tactics” and charged “high fees which bear no relation to actual cost”. But the court came to the conclusion that the prosecutor had not been able to prove that there were selfish motivations.

Under Swiss law, assisted suicide is not illegal as long as there are not self-serving motives.

Minelli was accused in an Uster district court of profiteering in three cases concerning German women who committed assisted suicide in the years 2003 to 2010. In one case, of an 80-year-old woman, Minelli was said to have accepted a CHF100,000 donation, despite the cost for the assisted suicide being several thousand Swiss francs. The second case concerned a mother and daughter who were allegedly charged CHF10,000, double the usual cost.

Switzerland’s approach to assisted suicide recently received international headlines when David Goodall, a 104-year-old Australian scientist, ended his life on May 10, using the services of Life Circle in Basel.

Dignitas has helped 2,550 people die between 1998 and 2017. The largest number came from Germany (1,150). Other countries with substantial numbers include the UK (391), France (299), Canada (60), and Australia (27).