Woman sentenced to conditional fine for assisted suicide
Published: Wednesday, Oct 23rd 2024, 18:10
Updated At: Wednesday, Oct 23rd 2024, 18:10
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On Wednesday, the Cantonal Criminal Court of Lugano sentenced a woman from Ticino to a conditional fine for inciting and assisting suicide. The court considered it proven that the retired nurse accompanied seven people to their suicide.
The court sentenced the woman to a conditional fine of 150 daily rates of CHF 40 each. The woman must also pay a fine of 500 francs. The retired nurse had acted out of selfish motives, the presiding judge stated at the sentencing hearing.
She had accompanied people from nearby Italy to their deaths. Because legislation is more restrictive in Switzerland's southern neighbor, the accused took advantage of the "economic opportunity". However, as a self-employed nurse and masseuse, she was already earning a good living, namely around CHF 10,000 per month.
The judge justified the conditional fine instead of the conditional six-month prison sentence that the public prosecutor's office had demanded. In addition, she was suffering from a mental disorder that was probably more severe than the medical report suggested.
Seven assisted suicides in a short space of time
When questioning the woman in court, the presiding judge emphasized that she had accompanied several people to suicide within a very short period of time as part of the "Carpe Diem" association. The woman had founded the association for the purpose of assisting the dying.
According to the indictment, the retired nurse helped seven people to commit suicide between the end of October 2016 and the beginning of February 2017. She accompanied an eighth person to suicide free of charge, the presiding judge noted.
A further three people had asked her about assisted suicide, and although the woman had never seen these potential "clients", she had charged them CHF 1,000 each. When asked why she had done this, the soon-to-be 67-year-old replied that she had used the money to cover expenses. In addition, she had already ordered the medication prescribed by a doctor.
In addition, the woman did not charge uniform fees for her work, but charged a different price for each client, as the presiding judge explained. According to the indictment, the woman earned between 2,500 and 8,300 francs net from each of the seven clients at "Carpe Diem".
"Acted unscrupulously"
In her plea, the public prosecutor argued that the woman had acted "unscrupulously" and that she considered the motive of acting selfishly to be fulfilled. She had earned well and could have carried out the assisted dying for free, she argued. According to Article 115 of the Criminal Code, anyone who induces or assists someone to commit suicide for selfish reasons is liable to prosecution.
The woman's lawyer, however, pointed out that euthanasia organizations such as "Exit" and "Dignitas" charge between 7,000 and 11,000 francs per suicide. How much of this remains as pure "earnings" is not known. In this respect, the amounts charged by his client were comparable to those of other euthanasia organizations.
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