Former Swiss nurse sentenced for ‘assisted suicide tourism’

Suspended sentence for assisted suicide in Ticino Keystone-SDA

On Wednesday, the Cantonal Criminal Court of Lugano handed down a suspended sentence to a woman from Ticino for incitement and assistance to commit suicide. The court considered it established that the retired nurse had helped seven people to take their own lives.

The court gave her a suspended sentence of 150 days fine at CHF40 (about $46) per day in lieu of a prison sentence. In addition, she was fined CHF500. The court found that the retired nurse had acted for selfish reasons.

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She accompanied people from neighbouring Italy to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide. With legislation in Italy being more restrictive, the accused took advantage of this “economic opportunity” despite being fairly well off. As a self-employed nurse and masseuse, she used to earn about CHF10,000 a month.

At the age of 67, the accused no longer practises, explained the judge, justifying the suspended fine instead of the suspended prison sentence requested by the prosecution. In addition, she probably suffers from a more pronounced mental disorder than the medical report suggests.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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