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Viewpoint: Will I stay or can I go? Assisted suicide in prison

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Abstract

Assisted suicide (AS) is a controversial practice with which physicians and nurses are confronted more and more often. In Switzerland, it is available for Swiss residents and in certain cases for foreigners. Prisoners meet the same prerequisites for AS as the general population and should therefore be eligible for it. Ethical issues, such as informed choice and the autonomy of prisoners, and organizational questions need to be addressed. They must not lead to a denial of this practice. Even though prisons constitute a special area of work for medical staff, it is important to address the possibility of AS in prison openly. This can raise awareness of the difficulties health-care professionals face working in closed institutions.

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Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this commentary are the authors own. They do not represent the position or policy of the Institute for Biomedical Ethics (IBMB), University of Basel or the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

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Correspondence to Wiebke Bretschneider.

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The authors present difficult issues confronting health care professionals in Switzerland's prisons, where residents may want to exercise the same rights to end their lives that the general public has in a country with laws permitting assisted suicide under certain circumstances.

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Handtke, V., Bretschneider, W. Viewpoint: Will I stay or can I go? Assisted suicide in prison. J Public Health Pol 36, 67–72 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2014.43

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