Swiss right-to-die group says founder dies by assisted suicide

Ludwig Amadeus Minelli, Secretary General of the Swiss euthanasia association Dignitas, shown on Feb. 26, 2020. (Uli Deck/picture alliance via Getty Images)

The head of Swiss right-to-die organization Dignitas has died through assisted suicide, the group said in a statement on Sunday.

Ludwig Minelli, who founded the group in 1998, died on Saturday just days before his 93rd birthday, Dignitas said.

Dignitas said it would “continue to manage and develop the association in the spirit of its founder as a professional and combative international organization for self-determination and freedom of choice in life and at the end of life”.

Minelli, a lawyer by trade, faced plenty of legal challenges and made several successful appeals to the Swiss supreme court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Dignitas said his work had a lasting influence on Swiss law, pointing to a 2011 ECHR ruling that recognized the right of a person to decide the manner and time of their own end of life.

Swiss law does not allow for euthanasia, where a doctor or other person administers a lethal injection for example.

But assisted dying -- when a person who articulates a wish to die commits the lethal act themselves -- has been legal for decades.

Unlike some similar organizations in Switzerland, Dignitas, which says it has more than 10,000 members, also offers its services to people living outside the country.