Two years ago, the man contracted the deadly disease ALS. He became partially paralyzed and had difficulty breathing on his own. In early July, he and his family would have gone to a clinic in Switzerland to receive euthanasia. But the corona pandemic put an end to the trip.

Staffan Bergström, professor emeritus of international health at Karolinska Institutet and a licensed doctor, got in touch with him and decided to help him.

- I am here to free a person from a suffering that no one else can help him avoid, he says.

Bergström is also chairman of the national association The Right to a Dignified Death, which is for euthanasia, and a diligent debater on the subject.

Want to get it tried

He took part in the man's medical records and correspondence with the clinic in Switzerland. He also received a certificate that the man wanted his help.

In Sweden, it is illegal for a licensed doctor to perform an euthanasia act, according to Swedish law.

- I am on medication that I can take with me, prescribe for him, with the condition that he himself can take them on his own. He was so mobile in one hand that he could empty the glass that I have prepared for him and which I know is deadly, says Staffan Bergström.

A doctor who prescribes medicine so that someone can end their life may lose their ID, but there are no legal cases where this has been tried in court.

- My wish, ultimately, is to have it legally tried, whether I am a criminal or not a criminal when this drug is taken. And in the next step, whether I lose my medical ID or not.

Police report received

Dagens Nyheter spoke with the seriously ill ALS-sick man last Monday, a day before he died in his bed. He explained that the disease had ruined his life. In the autumn of 2018, he received the message.

"Two minutes after I was diagnosed, I thought: I want control over my whole life, including death," he told DN.

On Tuesday, surrounded by his family, the man swallowed the medication in his home on his own. After a few minutes he died. Medical staff and the police received documents and an account of what had happened. Bergström was questioned on the spot and a police report has been made.

- A report has been received and a preliminary investigation has been initiated into aiding and abetting murder. No person is currently in custody, says Anders Bryngelsson, spokesman for the police in Stockholm.

District Attorney Urszula Grabowska, who is handling the case, says that one person is a suspect.