The founder of Dignitas dies at the age of 92 by assisted suicide, the group says

The founder of Swiss right-to-die organization Dignitas has died by assisted suicide, the group says.

Ludwig Minelli, 92, died Saturday, days before his 93rd birthday.

The group paid tribute to Minelli, saying he had lived a “life for choice, self-determination and human rights”.

Minelli founded Dignitas in 1998 and has since helped thousands of people die.

In recent decades, some countries have changed their stance on assisted dying, with Australia, Canada and New Zealand introducing laws. The British House of Lords is currently debating the assisted dying bill.

Critics of legalization say it could force disabled and vulnerable people to end their lives.

Minelli started his career as a journalist, working as a correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel, before studying law and becoming interested in human rights.

Throughout his life he passionately campaigned for the right to die, giving Dignitas the slogan “dignity in life, dignity in death”.

In a 2010 interview with the BBChe said: “I am convinced that we must fight to implement the last human right in our societies. And the last human right is the right to make a decision about one’s own goal, and the possibility of achieving this goal without risk and without pain.”

Minelli founded Dignitas after splitting from the older Swiss assisted dying organization Exit because he felt its rules were too restrictive.

The group became world famous for offering assisted suicide to non-Swiss citizens who travel to Switzerland because assisted death is not allowed in their home country.

Within Switzerland, he was sometimes criticized for a perceived lack of transparency over the organization’s financial dealings, and for offering assisted death to those who were not terminally ill but wanted to end their lives.

He faced numerous legal challenges and made multiple successful appeals to the Swiss Supreme Court

In a statement, Dignitas said his work had had a lasting impact, citing a 2011 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in which it upheld the right of a person capable of judging to decide the manner and timing of his own end of life.

Euthanasia – when a lethal drug is administered by a doctor to deliberately end someone’s life to relieve suffering – is illegal in Switzerland.

But assisted death has been permitted under Swiss law since 1942, subject to strict conditions, including that there is no profit motive and that the person wishing to die is of sound mind.

Dignitas said in a statement that 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 choice in life and at the end of life.”

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