Swiss doc convicted for helping fit woman commit suicide

GENEVA: The vice-president of a Swiss assisted suicide association said Friday he had been convicted for helping a healthy woman take her life alongside her sick husband, and said he would appeal.

Pierre Beck, 74, of the assisted suicide provider group Exit in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, prescribed the barbiturate pentoarbital to the 86-year-old woman. Geneva´s cantonal criminal appeals court said he committed a “serious offence” and “deliberately chose to break the law”, in a judgement issued on April 20, according to the RTS public broadcaster. The regional court also upheld a sentence imposed by a lower court last year of a suspended fine. The retired doctor told AFP on Friday that he now planned to go to Switzerland´s highest court to appeal the ruling. The case dates back to April 2017, when Beck helped a couple commit suicide together.