The founder of controversial Swiss assisted-suicide clinic Dignitas, Ludwig Minelli, has said that anyone whose terminally ill partner commits suicide should also be assisted in dying – even if they are in perfect physical health. Minelli wants the drug prescribed to his clients to be available to partners of patients who suffer dementia. Under present Swiss law it is only legal to assist the terminally ill in dying.

He said: “A change in the law is required to give dementia sufferers and their families more opportunities. The partner should be allowed to have a prescription for these drugs even when they are not terminally ill. In such cases the partners are often a similar age and one does not want to remain without the other.”

The human rights lawyer and activist spoke after a case last fortnight in which a 64-year-old man strangled his wife of 30 years who was affected by Alzheimer’s. He described the act as one “of desperation”. Zurich public prosecutor Andreas Brunner denied Mr Minelli’s proposal for the proposal to be widened. He said: “In my view, no change in the law should be sought.”

Minelli has previously argued that healthy people should be granted the right to end their lives at Dignitas and other suicide clinics. Last year he said that assisted suicide should be made available “on demand”. He said that suicide was not just for the dying, but “a marvellous possibility given to a human being”. ~ Daily Mail, Oct 19