Swiss psychiatrist Peter Baumann sentenced to one year prison for assisted suicide

June 7, 2007

On July 6, 2007, retired Swiss psychiatrist Peter Baumann was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after he helped three mentally ill people commit suicide. He was sentenced in Basel Criminal Court to three years in prison, two years of which are suspended.

Switzerland has one of the most relaxed laws on assisted suicide in Europe, tolerating it where the act is committed by the patient and in which the helper has no direct interest. Acts such as injecting a patient with the intention of ending their life remains illegal.

Baumann was charged with intentional killing and several counts of inciting and assisting someone to commit a suicide for helping three depressed patients to take their lives rather than trying to save them.¹