The Ambiguities of Assisted Suicide in Switzerland

This article aims to highlight the particularity of assisted suicide in Switzerland. Compared with other contemporary forms of dying around the world, which are mainly medicalized, the implementation of assisted suicide in Switzerland is carried out by volunteer associations. The political culture pertaining to assisted suicide reflects the reluctance of medicine to recognize the practice. But its legitimacy is not only a question of justice and rights. It is based on a process of social recognition, advanced by a citizen’s movement, and debated in the public sphere. Through the history of one particular francophone association for the right to die with dignity, the article examines the Swiss way of regulating this manner of dying.