How do assisted suicide, indirect active euthanasia and direct active euthanasia differ, and which are allowed in Switzerland?
In assisted suicide, the person takes the lethal substance themselves; in indirect active euthanasia, pain relief (e.g. morphine) is given that may shorten life as a side effect; in direct active euthanasia, someone else deliberately kills the patient. In Switzerland, the first two are not punishable (assisted suicide only without selfish motives); direct active euthanasia is a crime.
| Term | What happens | Switzerland |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted suicide (Suizidhilfe) | the patient is given the lethal substance and takes it themselves, without anyone else's action | not punishable unless done for selfish motives (Art. 115 Criminal Code) |
| Indirect active euthanasia | drugs such as morphine are used to relieve suffering; a possibly earlier death is accepted as a side effect | not explicitly regulated, considered permissible |
| Direct active euthanasia (killing on request) | someone else deliberately ends the patient's life | punishable (Art. 114, killing on request) |
The decisive question is who performs the last act and what is intended: in assisted suicide the patient acts; in indirect euthanasia the aim is pain relief and death is a foreseen side effect; in direct euthanasia death is the aim and someone else causes it. In Common People, Amanda's request to be killed is a request for exactly this last, forbidden form.
Related end-of-life issues: advance directives (Patientenverfügungen), in which people state in advance what treatment they want if they can no longer decide, and long-term care.
Go deeper:
Wikipedia: Euthanasia in Switzerland — the legal situation and Article 115.- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Voluntary Euthanasia — the main arguments for and against.