ArticleDeutsches Arzteblatt international2019
Assisted Suicide in Switzerland: An Analysis of Death Records From Swiss Institutes of Forensic Medicine.
Article in Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Assessment of decisional capacity. A systematic review and analysis of instruments regarding their applicability to requests for assisted suicide.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Pooled it
- Assisted death in eating disorders: a systematic review of cases and clinical rationales.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Development, implementation, and evaluation of a registry for the documentation and analysis of assisted suicide in Germany (RegAS) - study protocol.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Review
- ["Assisted Suicide"-A Case Report on Assisted Suicide in the Context of Mental Illnesses].Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2025Article
- Reconsidering dependence on life-sustaining treatment as a criterion for assisted suicide: the Italian legal unicum in comparative perspective.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Physician-assisted death for psychiatric disorders: ongoing reasons for concern.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2024Article
- Expert Views on Medical Involvement in the Swiss Assisted Dying Practice: "We Want to Have Our Cake and Eat It Too"?AJOB empirical bioethics · 2024Article
- When the cause of death does not exist: time for the WHO to close the ICD classification gap for Medical Aid in Dying.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Review
- Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Mental Disorders: Ethical Positions in the Debate between Proportionality, Dignity, and the Right to Die.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Evaluating requests for physician-assisted suicide. A survey among German oncologists.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- ICD-Based Cause of Death Statistics Fail to Provide Reliable Data for Medical Aid in Dying.International journal of public health · 2023Article
- Improving control over euthanasia of persons with psychiatric illness: Lessons from the first Belgian criminal court case concerning euthanasia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Practical Issues of Medical Experts in Assessing Persons With Mental Illness Asking for Assisted Dying in Switzerland.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- [Announced assisted suicide in Switzerland: a case report].Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2021Article
- Prevalence of somatic and psychiatric morbidity across occupations in Switzerland and its correlation with suicide mortality: results from the Swiss National Cohort (1990-2014).BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe aim of this research project, part of a program initiated by the Swiss Federal Council, was to trace the development of organized assisted suicide in Switzerland, starting from the very first case in 1985.
methodsRetrospective data on 3666 death records from Swiss institutes of foren- sic medicine for the years 1985 to 2014 were systematically compiled, read into a database, and for the most part quantitatively evaluated.
resultsAlongside a marked increase in the overall number of assisted suicides since the turn of the century, the number of people traveling to Switzerland from other countries-predominantly Germany-for this purpose has risen steadily. The proportion of women was 60%, and the age at death ranged from 18 to 105 years (median 73). The largest diagnostic category was malignancy overall, neurological disease for those from other countries. The next largest category was age-related functional limitation, e.g., sensory impairment (loss of sight and hearing), the conse- quences of which were stated in writing as the reason for the wish to die. Following the Swiss Federal Court's promulgation of binding requirements in 2006, the docu- mentation contained in the death records for the subsequent period up to 2014 is much more detailed, but still not uniform or even necessarily complete.
conclusionThe number of candidates for organized assisted suicide increased steadily during the study period, but no standard procedures were followed. The question therefore arises of whether further regulation or the introduction of a cen- tral registration office to maximize standardization and promote transparency would lead to improved quality assurance.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.