Ludwig Minelli |
Prosecutors are investigating the founder of the Dignitas assisted-suicide clinic over reports the facility is operating as a for-profit business and not a charity as Swiss law requires.
The accusations against Ludwig Minelli are part of a two-year probe of Dignitas, reported the London Telegraph, and investigators are expected to complete their activities later this year when they will determine if there is evidence to file charges against Minelli or clinic staff.
"Claims that personal possessions have gone missing from patients who have died at the clinic are being investigated by police," said Urs Hubmann, the public prosecutor for the canton of Zurich, who is leading the investigation.
"We are also examining whether assisted suicides have been carried out at Dignitas for selfish reasons, such as financial gain.
"We have to establish the facts of the claims, if any, before proceeding further."
Under Swiss law, assisted suicide is sanctioned by charities organized for that purpose.
In 2006, WND reported Minelli's plans to expand his operation to other European countries and to provide his service to those suffering chronic depression.
"We never say no," he told the London Times. "Even those suffering from Alzheimer's will have lucid moments in which they may choose to die once a certain point has been reached, such as when they can no longer recognisz their children.
"We would never assist the death of someone with acute depression, because the depression is a symptom of the illness," said Minelli. "But if somebody comes after 10 or 12 years of depression and says they do not want to prolong their life under such conditions, then we might help them to die."
According to former members of Dignitas' staff, Minelli might be too helpful.
Soraya Wernli, a nurse who left Dignitas in 2005 after assisting 30 deaths, told investigators she became disturbed by activities at the clinic and claimed clients were rushed into the decision to end their lives.
"I joined because I believed it was a good organization which helped the terminally ill end their suffering, but I came to realize it was really something different. It was all done for money."
Prosecutors on the case say no family members of those who've died at the clinic have complained, only former staff members.
As would be expected, Minelli has drawn opposition from pro-life groups, but even other pro-euthanasia activists have criticized the suicide-clinic entrepreneur for marketing to those with depression.
"We are campaigning on behalf of people who are terminally ill and mentally competent," a spokesman for the UK's Dignity in Dying said in 2006. "That way you can assure you are not harming vulnerable people."
Minelli dismissed their criticism. "The idea of a terminal illness as a condition for assisted suicide is a British obsession," he said.
Minelli, an agnostic, has said his passion for astronomy helps him put the death of a client into perspective.
"I have a 20-centimeter telescope which I mount in my garden. Sometimes at night the sky is ablaze with stars. I can see Jupiter with its four moons and Saturn's ring system. I am familiar with the cosmos and I know this man is only preceding me by milliseconds, in a cosmological dimension."
Regarding the current investigation, Minelli has challenged the authorities to charge him if they feel he is making himself rich by his activities.
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