Assistierter Suizid und Sterbehilfe in einer alternden Gesellschaft

Due to the aging of the population, an increasing number of people suffer from chronic illnesses and increased fragility, which impair the quality of life. In association with this, increasingly more affected people decide to actively end their life. In addition to methods of suicide carried out by the person alone, assistance by medical personnel is also resorted to. The term assisted suicide implies that the act of committing suicide is done by the persons themselves but physicians can also play an important role. This article elucidates the legal regulations related to assisted suicide and explains the difference to active euthanasia. It explores the existing literature in order to elaborate the different aspects of assisted suicide in today's society. After examining the context of dying in this modern society, it explains various definitions of different types of active euthanasia and assisted suicide and summarizes recent developments in international regulations, with a special focus on the legal context in Switzerland. Finally, it discusses the impact that these developments have on legal medicine, as well as the challenges that need to be addressed in the future and sketches out the role legal medicine should play in this context