Yabby, marginalising an argument on the basis of religion is avoiding the issue, especially when neither commenter had proposed a religious argument. Deciding that contributors don't have direct experience of death or dying is another clue that you don't have enough rational argument. Clearly the system does NOT work well in Switzerland regardless of the operations of Exit Switzerland. It is just as clear that this is an area with the potential for enormous exploitation of both the elderly and the physically and mentally unwell. Until there exists absolute ways to protect the vulnerable the law should not be changed. To date, I have not seen such protections anywhere.

One of my concerns is that if we make assisted suicide legal then people who are lonely and depressed will feel that's exactly what society and people in general want them to do. We shouldn't need situations where your main beneficiary procures the drugs and is just waiting for you to depart this world because they're in debt to realise that there are so many people suffering from depression that such a move would be tantamount to telling them to top themselves. Many people think about suicide, and we should be trying to improve their lives, not encouraging them to commit suicide and giving them a helping hand. What sort of person says "oh, you don't feel like life's worth living anymore - okay, let me help you kill yourself!"? Why do we have suicide prevention programmes if assisted suicide is such a great idea? Suicide is bad enough, but when you add another person into the equation it creates all sorts of doubts, as shown by the situation in this article.

DebbieG, clearly the operations of Exit Switzerland work very well.
There is no good reason that Australia could not adopt laws based
on their system, much suffering could be avoided and Australians
would not have to break the law and become smugglers, just to
have choice about their lives.

As for Runner and Martin, they spend their days promoting religious
dogma on OLO. I doubt if they have suddenly been struck by lightning.

Lets have a referendum on this and sort it out, once and for all.

I'm trying to see this from my atheist point of view, that we each have one - incredibly valuable - life and we shouldn't throw it away. That there is no heaven, no after-life, so when we go, we go. Forever.

Hey ! What was that ?! That was our one-and-only little flash of eternity.

Let's see: this guy stands to be sole heir of some other guy's assets, and he goes to Mexico, comes back, dopes up his friend and his friend dies that day. His friend wasn't suffering from any life-threatening disease, just felt a bit depressed at times. Should he be charged with any crime ?

Hmmmmm ...... that's a tough one.

Some of you b@stards have got to be joking .......

I've seen quite a few people die, none of them in agony or pleading to be 'let go'. So where are your thousands, Yabby ?

Sounds to me Joe, that whilst you sometimes write great posts, in
this case, your nick of Loudmouth is an apt description.

Perhaps you should read the two newspaper articles that link to the
case, to gain a bit further understanding.
Just a few points:

The two had known one another for 30 years.
Ward had long before hand asked Nielsen to manage some financial
affairs.
After a stroke in 2007, Ward made it clear that he wished to take
his own life, should circumstances amount to a situation where he was
no longer independant or had quality of life. Contact with Exit
was taken up. Read the rest yourself before loudmouthing.

The thing is however, under Swiss law, this case would still have
been a crime, for nobody who stands to benefit, can be involved.
But then, under Swiss law, Ward would have had another option apart
from asking a thirty year long friend for help to go to Mexico for him.
What friend of yours would risk lifelong jail for you?

The thousands are out there, Joe. Given that what they are doing
is considered a crime in Australia they are perhaps unlikely to tell you.
But if you bother to inform yourself, you'll find out.

I can only hope that this verdict will serve as a deterrent to other "predators" who may think that they will profit by preying on lonely seniors!