Suicide in Switzerland – How free is the will really in self-determined death? – Culture

It hits relatives like a blow when they find out that someone close to them has taken their own life. The philosopher Karl Jaspers spoke of an “existential shudder” that comes over one when a person actively crosses this enormous boundary from life to death.

In addition, there is often a deep experience of strangeness – the big question of why. Sometimes we are also plagued by feelings of guilt: How could I have prevented this? Rarely also anger: How could the person do this to us? And for a lot of people there is this basic feeling: This shouldn’t be the case. It shouldn’t come to that.

And yet: In Switzerland, around a thousand people commit suicide every year. Even more people are choosing assisted suicide with a euthanasia organization. More people worldwide die from suicide than from wars or violence – this doesn’t include all the failed suicide attempts. And the statistics also show that it is predominantly men who take their own lives. And the suicide rate increases with age.

The theologian Dorothee Arnold-Krüger is an expert on moral questions surrounding death. She suspects the reason for the preponderance of men is that many men have a harder time dealing with frailty and need for help and are less likely to take advantage of offers of companionship and support. In addition, men generally have fewer social relationships in which they can open up, says the expert.

Suicide rates are falling – just not among young people

In general, the number of suicides in Switzerland has been falling continuously for years. But the number of people who end their lives through assisted suicide is increasing. And, what is worrying: suicidality among young people has increased. The children and youth foundation Pro Juventute estimates that one in eleven young people has tried to take their own life.

Experts and actors are therefore calling for better prevention. These include tangible measures such as fences on bridges and railway tracks, restricted access to firearms and medication, but also low-threshold conversation offers such as the “Offered Hand” or the “Talking can save” campaign. The number of people using such offers has been increasing for some time now – even in the wake of Corona.

Low-threshold offers and quick help

So-called crisis intervention centers (KIZ), such as the KIZ in Winterthur, are also helpful. This is located in the middle of the city’s residential area and invites people to come in without prior notice in the event of a crisis. The “walk-in” offer is central to low-threshold access, says Jens Eckert, senior doctor at the KIZ in Winterthur.

A young woman who lost her job recently sought help. She already knew the crisis intervention center because she had been there once as a teenager. For her, it is a place where she can find support – and time for herself.

At that time, Daniel Göring was no longer able to accept any offer of help when he attempted suicide. One evening he stood alone in the kitchen and couldn’t see a way out. He wanted to take his own life.

The professional pressure became too great. He lacked the strength to confide in anyone and to show weakness in the office, in front of his colleagues. There was also depression. Daniel Göring’s attempt to take his own life failed. Today he is eternally grateful for it.

The ambivalence of freedom

Most of the survivors felt similar to Göring. They are later happy that the suicide attempt failed – that someone helped them. The decision to take one’s own life is often not really free: the suicide attempt occurs out of emotion, an internal emergency situation or an illness, a psychological disorder, such as acute depression or psychosis.

Legend:

Finding your way out of the thicket of dark thoughts is often impossible for people with mental health problems.

Benjamin Güdel

Such suicide wishes are neither well thought out nor stable. For the suicide expert, philosopher and doctor Mathias Bormuth, it is precisely this “ambivalence of freedom” that is at the center of thinking about suicide. And this ambivalence also runs like a red thread through the European intellectual history of suicide.

The philosophy and the question of “suicide”

Ancient Greece was divided on the question of suicide. Thinkers such as Plato and later the church father Augustine rejected the so-called “suicide”. Philosophers like Seneca, on the other hand, advocated “suicide” and praised self-determination at the end of life.

Even later, during the Enlightenment, both camps existed. Immanuel Kant, for example, saw every suicide as a “crime”. Suicide contradicts the categorical prohibition of killing and violates the duties that every person has towards themselves, writes Kant.

Legend:

Crossing into eternal darkness: Over 1,000 people commit suicide every year in Switzerland.

Benjamin Güdel

The Scottish enlightener David Hume, on the other hand, saw suicide as a legitimate, last resort, similar to Friedrich Nietzsche later, who called for a revaluation of suicide when he wrote in his work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”: “I praise you my death, the free death , who comes to me because I want.” Nietzsche thus also turns against the Christian-religious interpretation of suicide as a sin.

Religion and suicide: forbidden and ostracized

From a Christian perspective, it has long been true that life is given to us by God. This sacred gift must not be destroyed. Only God can end life. As a consequence of this idea, suicide was long considered a sin, a rebellion against God.

For centuries, the churches even refused to allow “suicides” to be buried in church. Today it is different, but there is still the idea of ​​the sanctity of life, the unavailability of death. This may also be one reason why religious people are statistically less likely to commit suicide.

Legend:

Therapists, pastors and relatives need affection and knowledge in order to find contact with those affected.

Benjamin Güdel

A quick look at other world religions shows that there is a lot of overlap. In Islam, suicide is not only forbidden, it is even considered a serious sin – in contrast to martyrdom, which is judged differently.

In Judaism, suicide is only accepted if it prevents murder, incest or idolatry. Buddhism and Hinduism also have a long tradition of prohibiting suicide. In individual cases, only fasting to die is permitted, as practiced by some religious ascetics.

Assisted suicide: not an individual decision

How do we want to die? This existential question has been asked again for several years – especially in Switzerland. In addition to hospices and palliative care units, there is also the possibility of ending one’s life with the help of end-of-life organizations such as Exit.

However, assisted suicide may only take place after the wish to die has been carefully examined by two independent reports. In cases of doubt, you even need the approval of an ethics committee. The reports examine whether a person’s wish to die is truly self-determined, stable and well-considered.

Every decision about life and death always affects relatives. And sometimes they do not agree with the decision of someone close to them to take their own life. That’s exactly what Claire Müller experienced at the age of 92. She felt that her strength was dwindling, everyday life was becoming more difficult, and her will to live was dwindling.

Her daughter Doris Bamert did not agree with her mother’s decision at the time. She believed that life should not be ended purely because of age. The mother should not only think about herself, but also about her relatives. Claire Müller replies: “No, I have to go. I have to make the decision.”

Both are probably right, because real freedom is always responsible freedom. We humans are social creatures and as such our freedom is always an integrated, dependent freedom.