{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "assisted-dying",
 "type": "procedure",
 "names": {
  "name": "Assisted dying",
  "aliases": [
   "assisted suicide",
   "accompanied suicide",
   "voluntary assisted dying",
   "VAD",
   "physician-assisted death"
  ],
  "said": "The two Swiss associations read for this record use their own terms: one says accompanied suicide, the other voluntary assisted dying. Statutes elsewhere say assisted dying, medical assistance in dying, or nothing at all, because they do not provide for it. Euthanasia, where a doctor administers, is a different act from assisted suicide, where the person does; a country can permit one and prosecute the other."
 },
 "etymology": {
  "root": "euthanasia: Greek eu, well, plus thanatos, death — a good death, and in its first English uses in the seventeenth century it meant an easy natural one, not an assisted one. The modern distinction the law turns on is grammatical before it is ethical: who is the subject of the verb.",
  "tier": "tradition",
  "note": "Assisted suicide: the person takes the drug themselves. Euthanasia: someone else administers it. Swiss practice, and the route non-residents use, is the first."
 },
 "region": [
  "global",
  "europe-west"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "end-of-life",
  "setting": "staged",
  "anaesthesia": "none"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A person who wishes to end their life is prescribed a lethal drug by a doctor and takes it themselves, with an organisation present. The steps are administrative for months and medical at the end: joining an association, submitting a medical history and documents, obtaining a doctor's provisional agreement to write a prescription, attending two consultations with that doctor in the country, and then an appointment. Nothing about it is a procedure in the surgical sense, and the only part that happens in a clinical setting is the consultation.",
  "story": "This is the one journey in this directory with a single destination. Switzerland is where the associations that accept non-residents are, and the Swiss provision under which they work is Article 115 of the Criminal Code; the country-by-country reading, and the several jurisdictions that now provide for assisted dying for their own residents only, sit on this directory's assisted dying law page.\n\nWhat is unusual here is that the money is published in full, itemised, by the organisations themselves. Dignitas, at Forch near Zurich, sets out five figures. Preparation up to what it calls the \"provisional green light\" — a doctor's agreement in principle to prescribe, reserving the final decision until a consultation — is an additional contribution of 4,000 Swiss francs, payable in advance, and the page states that \"no guarantee of an accompanied suicide can be linked to this payment\". Two extended consultations with the Swiss doctor and the related administration are 1,000. Completion, covering the escort and a contribution towards the apartment, is 2,500. The funeral director and cremation, including the charges of the Swiss authorities and the despatch of the urn, are 2,500. Official procedures after the death, if the association handles them, are 1,000. The totals are stated: 11,000 Swiss francs with everything, 7,500 without the funeral and administrative arrangements, VAT excluded, and all of it \"subject to change\". Membership is separate: a one-off joining fee of 220 francs and an annual subscription of at least 80. The statutes provide for reduction or exemption for members in modest circumstances, agreed beforehand.\n\nPegasos, in Basel, publishes one number instead of five: approximately 10,000 Swiss francs, stated to cover paperwork, consultations, the appointment including drugs, cremation and the couriering of ashes, paid in two instalments. Its refund policy is published too — a full refund of the deposit if the application is not approved, and 1,500 francs retained if the applicant withdraws.\n\n*Inference —* the itemisation is worth more than the total. Two of the five Dignitas lines are for a death, not for a dying: the funeral director and the paperwork with the Swiss authorities. Somebody who dies away from home leaves an administrative estate in the country they died in, and here it has a price on it.\n\nThe journey is long before it is short. Membership, a medical file assembled by doctors at home, a provisional agreement, then travel, two consultations on separate days, and an appointment. The three things that stop it are refusal of the provisional agreement, deterioration that makes travel impossible, and the requirement that the person act for themselves at the end.",
  "how": "Administratively, in stages, each with its own payment. Medically, it is two consultations and a prescription. The association arranges the room, the escort and, where asked, the funeral director and the registry work; both organisations read for this record state that costs are settled in advance. What no page publishes is a count: neither organisation's fee pages state how many people apply, how many are approved, or how many travel and then do not go through with it.",
  "today": "As of 17 September 2026 the published prices read for this record are all Swiss and all from associations rather than hospitals: 7,500 or 11,000 francs from one, approximately 10,000 from the other, plus membership. No other country's provider page carrying a price for a non-resident was found, and that is not a gap in the reporting — it is the shape of the law.",
  "notes": "This page describes a process and reports published prices and published statements. It is not medical advice and it is not legal advice, it recommends nothing, and it takes no position for or against."
 },
 "metrics": {
  "stay_days": null,
  "days_before_flying": null,
  "recovery_weeks": null,
  "note": "None of these apply and none is published. The one interval that matters — from first application to appointment — is not stated as a number by either association read here; both describe a sequence of approvals instead, and one states that no payment guarantees an outcome.",
  "as_of": "2026-09-17",
  "source": "s:dignitas-costs",
  "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/accompanied-suicide/information-on-the-costs/"
 },
 "prices": [
  {
   "procedure": "assisted-dying",
   "country": "CH",
   "amount": 7500,
   "currency": "CHF",
   "as_of": "2026-09-17",
   "kind": "list",
   "includes": [
    "preparation to the provisional green light, 4,000",
    "two extended consultations with a Swiss doctor and related administration, 1,000",
    "completion, covering the escort and a contribution towards the apartment, 2,500"
   ],
   "excludes": [
    "the funeral director and cremation, 2,500",
    "official procedures after the death, 1,000",
    "VAT",
    "membership, travel and accommodation"
   ],
   "source": "s:dignitas-costs",
   "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/accompanied-suicide/information-on-the-costs/",
   "note": "the association's stated total where it is not asked to handle the funeral or the official affairs; 11,000 francs where it is. Payment is normally required in advance, and the page states that no guarantee of an accompanied suicide is linked to the first 4,000. All costs are stated to be subject to change.",
   "tier": "cited",
   "usd": 9158.0,
   "usd_high": null,
   "rate_date": "Wed, 16 Sep 2026"
  },
  {
   "procedure": "assisted-dying",
   "country": "CH",
   "amount": 300,
   "currency": "CHF",
   "as_of": "2026-09-17",
   "kind": "list",
   "includes": [
    "a one-off joining fee of 220 francs",
    "the first annual subscription, at the stated minimum of 80"
   ],
   "excludes": [
    "everything in the row above",
    "subsequent years"
   ],
   "source": "s:dignitas-membership",
   "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/become-a-member/membership/",
   "note": "membership is the precondition, and it is open to adults who are neither resident in Switzerland nor Swiss citizens; the association states it can only act within Swiss territory. The subscription is at each member's discretion but at least 80 francs, with reduction or exemption available to members in modest circumstances by prior agreement.",
   "tier": "cited",
   "usd": 366.0,
   "usd_high": null,
   "rate_date": "Wed, 16 Sep 2026"
  },
  {
   "procedure": "assisted-dying",
   "country": "CH",
   "city": "Basel",
   "amount": 10000,
   "currency": "CHF",
   "as_of": "2026-09-17",
   "kind": "estimate",
   "includes": [
    "paperwork",
    "consultations",
    "the appointment, including drugs",
    "cremation",
    "couriering of the ashes"
   ],
   "excludes": [
    "travel and accommodation",
    "any variation the association attributes to the level of external medical review needed"
   ],
   "source": "s:pegasos-faqs",
   "url": "https://pegasos-association.com/faqs/",
   "note": "the association's own figure, stated as approximate and paid in two instalments, a deposit at application and the balance at scheduling. Its published refund policy returns the full deposit if an application is not approved and retains 1,500 francs on withdrawal.",
   "tier": "cited",
   "usd": 12211.0,
   "usd_high": null,
   "rate_date": "Wed, 16 Sep 2026"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "assisted-dying-law",
   "as": "Where the country-by-country reading sits, including the jurisdictions that provide for residents only.",
   "rel": "governed-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "switzerland",
   "as": "The one destination, and the only country with associations that accept non-residents.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "circumvention-travel",
   "as": "The word for crossing a border to do lawfully what cannot be done at home.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "repatriation",
   "as": "Two of the five published Swiss lines are for what happens to the body and the paperwork afterwards.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-companion",
   "as": "Nobody makes this journey alone, and the escort is a published line on the bill.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-deposit",
   "as": "The first 4,000 francs buys an assessment, and the page says so.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "deposit-and-refund",
   "as": "One association publishes what is returned when an application is refused and what is kept when it is withdrawn.",
   "rel": "risk"
  },
  {
   "to": "getting-your-records",
   "as": "The medical file assembled at home is what the Swiss doctor decides on.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "deciding-whether",
   "as": "The step this record is entirely composed of.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "informed-consent",
   "as": "The requirement that the person act for themselves at the end is a consent rule before it is a clinical one.",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ],
 "confusable_with": [
  {
   "id": "addiction-rehab",
   "tell": "Both are long-stay, non-surgical and sold by membership or programme rather than by procedure; nothing else about them is comparable."
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "DIGNITAS — costs of an accompanied suicide",
   "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/accompanied-suicide/information-on-the-costs/"
  },
  {
   "label": "DIGNITAS — membership",
   "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/become-a-member/membership/"
  },
  {
   "label": "Pegasos Swiss Association — FAQs",
   "url": "https://pegasos-association.com/faqs/"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:dignitas-costs",
  "s:dignitas-membership",
  "s:pegasos-faqs",
  "s:ch-criminal-code"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:dignitas-costs",
    "note": "every figure and quotation is read off the association's own page; the paragraph about what the itemisation shows is marked Inference"
   },
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:pegasos-faqs"
   },
   "etymology": {
    "tier": "tradition"
   },
   "prices": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:dignitas-costs"
   },
   "metrics": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:dignitas-costs"
   }
  }
 },
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Flag of Switzerland.svg"
 ],
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-17",
 "blurb": "A person who wishes to end their life is prescribed a lethal drug by a doctor and takes it themselves, with an organisation present.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "global",
   "name": "Everywhere",
   "note": "use for a node that belongs to no one country — a standard, a word, a risk"
  },
  {
   "key": "europe-west",
   "name": "Western Europe",
   "note": "Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Austria"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "assisted-dying-law",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "Assisted dying, and who may cross a border for it",
   "as": "Where the country-by-country reading sits, including the jurisdictions that provide for residents only.",
   "rel": "governed-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "switzerland",
   "type": "destination",
   "name": "Switzerland",
   "as": "The one destination, and the only country with associations that accept non-residents.",
   "rel": "destination"
  },
  {
   "to": "circumvention-travel",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Circumvention travel",
   "as": "The word for crossing a border to do lawfully what cannot be done at home.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "repatriation",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Repatriation",
   "as": "Two of the five published Swiss lines are for what happens to the body and the paperwork afterwards.",
   "rel": "term"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-companion",
   "type": "pathway",
   "name": "The companion",
   "as": "Nobody makes this journey alone, and the escort is a published line on the bill.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-deposit",
   "type": "pathway",
   "name": "The deposit",
   "as": "The first 4,000 francs buys an assessment, and the page says so.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "deposit-and-refund",
   "type": "risk",
   "name": "The deposit, and whether it comes back",
   "as": "One association publishes what is returned when an application is refused and what is kept when it is withdrawn.",
   "rel": "risk"
  },
  {
   "to": "getting-your-records",
   "type": "pathway",
   "name": "Getting your records out",
   "as": "The medical file assembled at home is what the Swiss doctor decides on.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "deciding-whether",
   "type": "pathway",
   "name": "Deciding whether to go",
   "as": "The step this record is entirely composed of.",
   "rel": "step"
  },
  {
   "to": "informed-consent",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "Informed consent",
   "as": "The requirement that the person act for themselves at the end is a consent rule before it is a clinical one.",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:dignitas-costs",
   "kind": "org",
   "title": "Costs of an accompanied suicide",
   "publisher": "DIGNITAS, Forch, Switzerland",
   "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/accompanied-suicide/information-on-the-costs/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:dignitas-membership",
   "kind": "org",
   "title": "Membership",
   "publisher": "DIGNITAS, Forch, Switzerland",
   "url": "https://www.dignitas.ch/en/become-a-member/membership/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:pegasos-faqs",
   "kind": "org",
   "title": "FAQs — cost, refund policy and who may apply",
   "publisher": "Pegasos Swiss Association, Basel",
   "url": "https://pegasos-association.com/faqs/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-17",
   "note": "the answers are inside collapsed panels and were read out of the page text with the browser tools. States a cost of approximately CHF 10,000 covering paperwork, consultations, the appointment including drugs, cremation and couriering of ashes, paid in two instalments, with CHF 1,500 retained on withdrawal."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:ch-criminal-code",
   "kind": "statute",
   "title": "Swiss Criminal Code (SR 311.0), Article 115 — Inciting and assisting suicide (English translation)",
   "publisher": "Fedlex, the Swiss federal law portal",
   "url": "https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/54/757_781_799/20250101/en/html/fedlex-data-admin-ch-eli-cc-54-757_781_799-20250101-en-html.html",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:dignitas-costs",
   "note": "every figure and quotation is read off the association's own page; the paragraph about what the itemisation shows is marked Inference"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:pegasos-faqs"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  "etymology": {
   "tier": "tradition"
  },
  "prices": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:dignitas-costs"
  },
  "metrics": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:dignitas-costs"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "assisted-dying-law",
   "type": "rule",
   "name": "Assisted dying, and who may cross a border for it",
   "as": "The procedure these instruments govern.",
   "rel": "procedure"
  }
 ]
}