Assisted suicide not killing, students told

Assisted suicide is not killing if the person wishing to die has control of the process, the director of the Swiss-based group, Dignitas, said in Dublin last night.

Addressing the UCD Literary and Historical Society, Mr Ludwig A. Minelli, said religious dogma and emotional responses should be excluded from the debate. He argued that the definition of suicide "pivots on the condition that the person who wants to die has full control of the last action directly causing their death".

If a person in an assisted suicide is able to communicate Yes or No; or to say Go On or Stop, they are in control of the process, he said. "It is not killing if after a third person starts an automatic infusion pump, the person who wants to die is able to communicate."

However, Mr Minelli said the real problem was not whether to make assisted suicide illegal but why so many people, particularly young people in Switzerland and Ireland, wanted to commit suicide.

The State should find out what basic problem leaves someone with the idea that death is the only solution.

In conclusion, he said, a legal provision for assisted suicide would not worsen but improve an end-of-life situation by giving responsible citizens freedom of choice and freedom from dilemma.