Two-thirds of assisted-suicide cases in Switzerland are women, according to a recent study of the work of right-to-die organisations. The researchers also identified "weariness of life rather than a fatal or hopeless medical condition" as an increasingly common reason for older people to request help to kill themselves.

A team from Zurich University analysed official records of such deaths in Zurich from 2001 to 2004. Women accounted for two-thirds of the deaths, with the largest group aged between 65 and 84. One in four of all patients were suffering from non-fatal illnesses. Three per cent of those who were helped to die were suffering from a mental disorder.

Why are women over-represented? Study author Georg Bosshard surmises that women tend to verbalise their feelings and seek help more often than men. Depression is more common amongst women and there are more women in older age groups due to their longer life expectancy.

Curiously, the pattern of euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands is different, perhaps because doctors control assisted dying there. "It is known from studies on end-of-life decisions in The Netherlands that doctors quite often receive requests for assisted dying from people aged 80 years and over who are not suffering from a terminal illness," they write.

"Dutch doctors ... almost never grant such requests," the authors note. "In a system where right-to-die organisations play an important role, assistance for older people in dying appears to be considered as showing respect for their self-determination." ~ Swiss Info, Nov 4; Journal of Medical Ethics