He Did it: Scientist, 104, Ends Life at Assisted-Suicide Clinic in Switzerland

David Goodall, a renowned Australian scientist, was successful in his medically-assisted suicide on Thursday in Switzerland. He was unable to stay in his home country to perform the procedure as it remains illegal there. Starting in 2019, the Australian state of Victoria will allow terminally ill citizens to undergo voluntary euthanasia. However, Goodall was not terminally ill, so the new law would not have made the procedure available to him.

Six states have laws dealing with euthanasia, but all of them require the person requesting the medication or procedure to be diagnosed as terminally ill. Switzerland’s decades-old law only requires a written statement that the person – not dependent upon citizenship – is ending their lives freely and without coercion.

“At my age, and even at rather less than my age, one wants to be free to choose the death and when the death is the appropriate time,” Goodall said.

See Stephen Sorace, Scientist, 104, Ends Life at Assisted-Suicide Clinic in Switzerland, Fox News, May 10, 2018.