a procedureAssisted dying

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.

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.

What 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.

Pegasos, 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.

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.

The 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.

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.

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.

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.