Scandinavia

While it is correct that Sweden has no law specifically proscribing assisted suicide, the prosecutors might charge an assister with manslaughter - and do. In 1979 the Swedish right-to-die leader Berit Hedeby went to prison for a year for helping a man with MS to die.

Neighbouring Norway has criminal sanctions against assisted suicide by using the charge "accessory to murder". In cases where consent was given and the reasons compassionate, the courts pass lighter sentences. A recent law commission voted down de-criminalizing assisted suicide by a 5-2 vote.

A retired Norwegian physician, Christian Sandsdalen, was found guilty of wilful murder in 2000. He admitted giving an overdose of morphine to a woman chronically ill after 20 years with MS who begged for his help. It cost him his medical license but he was not sent to prison. He appealed the case right up to the Supreme Court and lost every time. Dr. Sandsdalen died a year ago at 82 and, curiously, his funeral was packed with Norway's dignitaries.

Denmark has no laws permitting assisted suicide, despite reports that it does.

Finland has nothing in its criminal code about assisted suicide. Sometimes an assister will inform the law enforcement authorities of him or herself of having aided someone in dying, and provided the action was justified, nothing more happens. Mostly it takes place among friends, who act discreetly. If Finnish doctors were known to practice assisted suicide or euthanasia, the situation might change, although there is no case history.


Source: ERGO Web Site
11 July 2002
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