Guidelines for Self-Chosen Death

Click on this link to read our procedural safeguards for self-chosen death: Farewell Foundation Procedural Safeguards July 4 2011 v2

The purpose of the procedural safeguards is to ensure that any member’s decision to end their lives is made on the basis of reliable information, at a time when the member has the mental capacity to make the decision, is made without inappropriate or undue influence, and is transparent and accountable to public authorities.

After close study and reflection on the models to regulate self-chosen death throughout the world, the Farewell Foundation for the Right to Die believes that the Swiss model for self-chosen death provides optimal protection of vulnerable persons while safeguarding the fundamental right to self-determination.

The procedural safeguards are informed and influenced by the procedures employed by
the Swiss group Dignitas and by the written standards of practice agreed to in 2009 by the Swiss group Exit and the Chief Prosecutor for the Canton of Zurich.  These procedural safeguards are intended to provide public authorities, and ultimately members of the public, with a level of transparency and accountability that far exceeds the current secrecy that attends Canada’s criminal prohibition on assisted suicide.

The procedural safeguards to be employed by the Farewell Foundation are public  documents.  The Farewell Foundation invites comments and suggestions from its members and from interested members of the public.  The Farewell Foundation is prepared to adopt any amendments that enhance transparency and accountability without sacrificing self-determination.