Acquittal in case of assisted suicide in healthy woman
Published: Wednesday, Mar 13th 2024, 14:30
Updated At: Wednesday, Mar 13th 2024, 13:30
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In a public hearing, the Federal Supreme Court has confirmed the acquittal of Pierre Beck for violating the Narcotics Act. In 2017, the Vice President of Exit Western Switzerland helped a healthy 86-year-old woman to commit suicide.
The First Criminal Division of the Federal Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of the Geneva public prosecutor's office by four votes to one. The latter appealed the decision of the Geneva Cantonal Court of February 2023 to the highest Swiss court.
This was the second time the Geneva judiciary had dealt with this case after the Federal Supreme Court overturned Beck's conviction for violating the Therapeutic Products Act in December 2021.
The only question before the Federal Supreme Court was whether Beck should be sentenced under the Narcotics Act. The majority of the judges answered in the negative. They held, among other things, that pentobarbital did indeed fall under the Narcotics Act.
The purpose of the Narcotics Act is the health and safety of the public in connection with narcotics and psychotropic substances. The law also aims to regulate the distribution of narcotics for medical and scientific purposes.
According to the speaker, the medical administration of pentobarbital to a healthy person is not medically indicated and has no therapeutic benefit. Rather, this raised exclusively ethical and moral questions.
According to the Federal Supreme Court, the question of the legality of dispensing the drug to a healthy person cannot therefore be answered on the basis of the current state of medical or pharmacological knowledge.
The department president also explained that when the Narcotics Act was created, there had never been any talk of regulating assisted suicide.
In its guidelines on euthanasia addressed to the medical profession, the Swiss Academy of Sciences only refers to sick people, as the judges stated. However, these guidelines do not constitute a legal basis. Rather, they are of an ethical nature.
It was undisputed from the outset that the doctor cannot be prosecuted under the Criminal Code. Article 115 only provides for punishment if someone urges another person to commit suicide for selfish reasons. This is in no way the case here.
Die together with husband
In 2017, the doctor prescribed pentobarbital to an 86-year-old woman who was in good health but wanted to die together with her seriously ill husband. Pentobarbital is used in anesthesia and as a sleeping pill, and leads to death if administered in high enough doses.
Before consulting the doctor, the woman had already deposited an advance directive for her suicide with a notary. In it, she stated that she could not mentally bear the prospect of living longer than her husband. She therefore wanted to end her life.
(Judgment 6B_393/2023 of 13.3.2023)
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