According to the National Health Service (UK), assisted suicide is the act of deliberately assisting or encouraging another person who commits, or attempts to commit, suicide. It is often confused with euthanasia, but they differ slightly. Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering. Euthanasia may be voluntary i.e. a person makes a conscious decision to die and asks for help to do this, it may be non-voluntary i.e. where a person is unable to give their consent (for example, because they are in a coma or are severely brain damaged) and another person takes the decision on their behalf or involuntary euthanasia i.e. where a person is killed against their expressed wishes (e.g. a doctor using powerful drugs to end the life of suffering of dying patient who is comatose – this happens often but goes unnoticed).

The similarity between euthanasia and assisted suicide is that they both involve ending the life of an ill or “hopeless” person. The difference is that for assisted suicide, the act is carried out by the person who wants to die though encouraged or supported by another person whereas the act of euthanasia is carried out by a person other than the soon to die individual.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia is illegal in many countries of the world. However in places like Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Oregon, euthanasia or assisted suicide is legal under certain circumstances as stipulated by the relevant laws.

In Switzerland, there are clinics that specialise in assisted suicide. They include Dignitas, Exit Switzerland and the Swiss Society for Humane Dying. Dignitas is the most popular of these clinics. It was founded in 1998 by Ludwig A. Minelli, a Swiss lawyer and they have helped over 1000 people die in Zurich, where the clinic is located. The Swiss law permits non-residents to travel to Switzerland to use the services of these clinics, and calls to ban this practice was rejected by about 78% of Cantons of Zurich voters in a referendum on 15 May 2011.
In an interview with Ludwig Minelli, he claims that Dignitas charges its patients about €4,000 for preparation and suicide assistance, or about €7,000 in case they will take over family duties like funerals, medical costs and official fees. He also claims that as of March 2012, the largest proportion of Dignitas clients were Germans. He added that some of Dignitas clients did not have terminal or progressive illness; they just chose to die because of the weariness of life. Documentation of consent to end one’s life is required for all clients.

Generally Dignitas’ assisted suicide protocol involves giving the patients a lethal overdose of some drugs (I have decided not to list them), which depresses the central nervous system, causing the person to become drowsy and fall asleep. Anaesthesia progresses to coma followed by respiratory arrest and death. Examples of known Dignitas clients are Dr John Elliott (Sydney doctor, 2007), Daniel James (23 years old paralysed British rugby player, 2008), Sir Edward and Mrs Joan Downes (British conductor and his wife, 2009), John Hicklenton (British comics artist, 2010), Michele Causse (French lesbian theorist and translator, chose to die on her birthday, July 30, 2010), Peter Smedley (British hotelier and millionaire, 2010). In December 2008, Dignitas showed on a Sky documentary the actual death of an American client, thus attracting global condemnation.

This article does not represent my views on suicide; it is for general knowledge, my view on suicide is “Olorun majari” – ask your Yoruba friend to interpret it.

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