The founder of the Swiss right-to-die organization Dignitas died by assisted suicide, the group reports.
Ludwig Minelli, 92, died on Saturday, days before his 93rd birthday.
The group paid tribute to Minelli, saying he had led a “life for freedom of 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 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 people helped by Dignitas are those who have traveled to Switzerland because assisted dying is not allowed in their own countries.
Throughout his life, Minelli passionately campaigned for the right to die, giving Dignitas the motto “dignity in life, dignity in death.”
In a 2010 interview with the BBC, he said: “I am convinced that we have to fight to implement the last human right in our societies. And the last human right is the right to make a decision for oneself, and the possibility of achieving that end without risk and without pain.”
Minelli began his career as a journalist, working as a correspondent for the German magazine Der Spiegel, before studying law and becoming interested in human rights.
After founding Dignitas, he faced numerous legal challenges and filed multiple successful appeals to the Swiss Supreme Court.
In a statement, Dignitas said its work had had a lasting influence, pointing to a 2011 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, in which it upheld the right of a person capable of judging to decide on the manner and timing of his or her own end of life.
Euthanasia, when a doctor administers a lethal drug to deliberately end a person’s life and alleviate their suffering, is illegal in Switzerland.
But assisted dying, in which a person receives lethal medications from a doctor that they then administer, 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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