Assisted suicide numbers rose in Switzerland last year

EXIT puts the increasing need for assisted suicide down to the aging of society, resulting in disease and infirmity affecting quality of life. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The Swiss assisted suicide organisation EXIT helped a total of 1,125 people end their lives in 2022, up 15% on the previous year, it said on Friday.  

This was 15% more than in the previous year, said EXIT Deutsche SchweizExternal link, which covers German-speaking Switzerland and the Italian speaking canton of Ticino. Its sister organization in French-speaking Switzerland is based in Geneva and bears the name Association for the Right to Die in DignityExternal link (ADMD).

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In 2022, the average age of people assisted by the German-speaking branch was 79.6 years, an increase of 1.4 years from 2021. As in previous years, women made up about 60% of cases, says the organisation.  

Most people who used EXIT were suffering from terminal cancer. This was the case of 413 people, or 37% of the total. EXIT says it also helped 320 very elderly people with multiple infirmities end their lives, and several people with disorders causing chronic pain.

Most of these seriously ill were able to die as they wished in their own homes. This was the case for 76% of EXIT-supported assisted suicides in 2022, while the number in nursing and retirement homes accounted for 18.6% percent.

Over the past 12 months more than 17,300 people have joined the non-profit association, which had more than 154,000 members in the German-speaking cantons and Ticino at the end of the year. ADMD in French-speaking Switzerland has some 30,000 members.

EXIT puts the increasing need for assisted suicide down to the aging of society, which results in illnesses or disabilities that seriously affect the quality of life.

Swiss law tolerates assisted suicide when patients commit the act themselves and helpers have no vested interest in their death. Assisted suicide has been legal in the country since the 1940s. 

Overall, assisted suicides remain rare in Switzerland, accounting for just over 1.5% of deaths.