The founder of Dignitas, a Swiss right-to-die organization, has died by assisted suicide, the group says.
Ludwig Minnelli, 92, died on Saturday, just days before his 93rd birthday.
The group paid tribute to Minnelli, saying he lived a “life of freedom of choice, self-determination and human rights”.
Minnelli founded Dignitas in 1998 and has since helped thousands of dying people.
In recent decades, some countries have changed their stance on assisted dying, with Australia, Canada and New Zealand introducing laws. The UK 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.
Many of the people helped by Dignitas have traveled to Switzerland because assisted dying is not allowed in their own countries.
Throughout his life, Minnelli campaigned passionately for the right to die, coining the Dignitas slogan “Dignity in life, dignity in death”.
In an interview with the BBC in 2010 he said: “I agree that we have to fight to implement the ultimate human right in our society. And the ultimate human right is the right to make decisions on one’s own behalf, and the possibility of achieving this end without risk and without pain.”
Minnelli began 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.
Dignitas faced several legal challenges after its founding, and made several successful appeals to the Swiss Supreme Court.
In a statement, Dignitas said their work had had a lasting impact, pointing to a 2011 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, in which it had affirmed the right of a capable person to decide on the manner and timing of the end of their life.
Euthanasia – when a lethal drug is administered by a physician to intentionally end a person’s life in order to relieve that person’s suffering – is illegal in Switzerland.
But assisted death, in which a person receives lethal drugs from a physician that they administer themselves, has been legal for decades.
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 freedom of choice in life and at the end of life”.
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