DIGNITAS BROCHURE

Dignitas

Legitimising euthanasia

The member society DIGNITAS, whose name refers to their ideal “To live with dignity - To die with dignity”, was founded in 1998. While associated mainly with helping people to commit suicide, they claim to have also “helped several thousand people continue to live despite their difficult health conditions. These people were taken seriously in their wish for assisted suicide yet, at the same time, it was possible to show them – usually with the assistance of doctors – an alternative to prematurely ending their life”. As an accredited medical facility able to carry out euthanasia on the instruction of patients through a systematic, bureaucratic process, their example serves as a counterpoint in this exhibition to the ad hoc, personal, and non-legal approach of DIY euthanasia advocated by the Thanatron. Both serve their purpose within different contexts and for different users.