In Switzerland, assisted suicide, although subject to extremely strict conditions, is accessible to the entire population. What about prisoners? Nothing, just a legal vacuum. With our neighbors, at the beginning of the year, the debate is on the table, with the new case of a dangerous criminal interned for life, who wishes to use this method.
"It is more human to want to commit suicide than to be buried alive for years to come," wrote Peter Vogt to AFP. At 69, overweight, he says he suffers from multiple diseases such as kidney and heart failure. This repeat rapist served his sentence more than ten years ago, but has since been interned for life in the penitentiary establishment of Bostadel (north) because his mental disorders make him very dangerous. He is only very rarely allowed to leave the prison and always accompanied by police. This "life without a future is not a life," he said. "Better to be dead than behind walls to vegetate".
A case to "clarify"
In July 2018, the detainee contacted Exit Deutsche Schweiz, a suicide aid organization. "We told him that his particular case needed to be clarified," Jürg Wiler, its vice president, told AFP. In Switzerland, the practice of assisted suicide is framed by medical codes of ethics and organizations such as Exit, which have enacted their own safeguards (age, illnesses), more restrictive than the Penal Code.
The law only states "that only one who," pushed by a selfish motive ", assists in someone's suicide, is punishable". What about prisoners? The authorities intend to take a position on the subject in early 2020 and have asked for the opinion of the Swiss Center for Competence in the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions (CSCSP). These experts estimated in October that assisted suicide in prisons should be possible, under certain conditions, because of the "right to self-determination" of individuals.
The day of his 70 years
Any prisoner capable of discernment should be able to use it "as soon as he suffers from a physical or mental illness causing unbearable suffering", explained to AFP Barbara Rohner, lawyer and main author of the CSCSP report. In the case of a mental illness, the CSCSP recommends two independent expert reports. He also recommends that the authorities, who have a "duty to assist" prisoners, to ensure that any request for assisted suicide is not linked to an emotional crisis.
Peter Vogt wants to end it because "the deterioration in his quality of life is no longer bearable", especially since he can no longer see his mother who lives in Austria and is seriously ill. He told the Blick newspaper that he wanted to die on his 70th birthday, August 13.
More and more elderly and sick prisoners
Between 1974 and 1990, he was repeatedly convicted of violent and sexual offenses against more than ten girls and women, ages 10 to 56, according to the authorities. In 1996, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, before being interned for life, a measure - the most radical in the Swiss criminal arsenal - introduced in 2004 by popular vote.
Beyond the Vogt case, "it is entirely conceivable that the subject is gaining in importance, because there will be more and more elderly and sick prisoners in prisons due to the aging of the prison population", noted Barbara Rohner. According to the Swiss National Science Foundation, between 2005 and 2016, the number of criminals over 50 years old doubled in the country's prisons, reaching more than 600 people.
A controversial subject
Peter Vogt himself assured AFP of knowing another detainee interested in assisted suicide. "No one deserves to commit suicide alone in his cell", without assistance. In Geneva, the co-president of the Francophone counterpart of Exit, Gabriela Jaunin, also told AFP that the organization had heard of an inmate interested in assisted suicide. Exit Suisse Romande has made it a principle - if the authorities give its consent - to accept only requests from prisoners suffering from serious physical illnesses.
The subject remains controversial. "It is up to the victims and their families to make the decision, which in reality is unfortunately not possible," said Christine Bussat, founder of the Swiss association Marche Blanche, to AFP.
Most jurists and criminologists, for their part, consider it inconceivable to deprive prisoners of assisted suicide while the rest of the population in Switzerland is entitled to it. For the ethicist Céline Ehrwein, interviewed by RTS television, preventing someone who suffers from committing suicide can become a "form of torture".
Society
Why do people commit to assisted suicide?
Did you see ?
Assisted suicide: 74-year-old healthy woman sets death date
- Detained
- Suicide
- Society
- Swiss
- Debate