*11.3.4 New Zealand*

After numerous unsuccessful legislative attempts, a nationwide vote in 2020 legalized physician-assisted suicide, effective November 7, 2021. New Zealand's Ministry of Health maintains an informative web site [35] that answers most potential questions about what it calls its Assisted Dying Service; noncitizens are not eligible to apply for the service. In the 5 months preceding March 31, 2022, 206 people applied for assisted dying. As of March 31, 66 people had already obtained an assisted death, 59 were still trying, and 81 people had not persisted (they were ineligible, they withdrew, or they died) [36].

## *11.3.5 Switzerland*

Euthanasia is illegal. Article 114 of the Penal Code of Switzerland forbids causing the death of a person even in the face of genuine and repeated requests. Article 115 forbids assisting with suicide for "selfish motives." Assisted suicide is permissible if the person assisting has good intentions and does not actually administer the medication that leads to death. Dignitas clinic [37] in Forch performs "accompanied suicides." Dignitas provides detailed information in their brochure, which emphasizes that the process is detailed, time-consuming, and expensive. Novelist Amy Bloom has written about her husband's death in Switzerland [38] and has been interviewed on NPR about that experience [39].

## **11.4 Countries in which the status of PAS and euthanasia is unclear**

## *11.4.1 Japan*

Despite the absence of specific laws banning euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide is a criminal offense. A District Court in 1995 found a physician guilty of homicide for injecting lethal drugs at a patient's request and set out four conditions to be met for active euthanasia to be legal. The same court in 2005 found a physician guilty of homicide for removing an endotracheal tube and giving a muscle relaxant without the patient's permission, a conviction upheld in 2007 by a court critical of the lower court's rules but unwilling to produce new ones. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
