[Assisted suicide in Switzerland (part 2): the «invisible» old age suicide].

Abstract

Introduction: According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), there were 6608 assisted suicides in Switzerland in the 5-year period 2018-2022; of these, 4766 cases (72%) were assisted by team members of EXIT, the largest Swiss right-to-die organization. According to EXIT-data, age-related multimorbidity is the second most common disease group in assisted dying, accounting for 27 % of all cases. For formal reasons, these symptom-oriented cases of old age assisted suicide cannot be adequately recorded in the FSO's ICD-based cause of death statistics. This «statistical weakness» implies that Switzerland is unable to provide reliable data on the phenomenon of old age assisted suicide, which is the subject of controversial debate in medical ethics and social policy. It would therefore be advisable to set up a national registry that carefully documents all cases of assisted suicide and could also critically monitor certain cases.