{{Short description|Swiss lawyer and journalist (1932–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}}
{{Infobox person | name = Ludwig Minelli | image = Ludwig Minelli Podiumsdiskussion Organisierte Suizidhilfe.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Minelli in 2015 | birth_name = Ludwig Amadeus Minelli | birth_date = {{birth date|1932|12|05|df=y}} | birth_place = Zurich, Switzerland | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|11|29|1932|12|05|df=y}} | death_place = Forch, Maur, Zurich, Switzerland | other_names = | alma_mater = University of Zurich | known_for = Founder and general secretary of Dignitas | occupation = Human rights lawyer | years_active = 1981–2025 | notable_works = }}
'''Ludwig Amadeus Minelli''' (5 December 1932 – 29 November 2025) was a Swiss human rights lawyer and former journalist who founded Dignitas, a Swiss assisted-suicide organisation.<ref>{{cite news | last = Langley | first = Alison | title = 'Suicide tourists' go to the Swiss for help in dying | work = The New York Times | date = 4 February 2003 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/04/world/suicide-tourists-go-to-the-swiss-for-help-in-dying.html | archive-date = 7 August 2022 | access-date = 30 November 2025 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220807173109/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/04/world/suicide-tourists-go-to-the-swiss-for-help-in-dying.html | url-status = live }}</ref>
Originally in a legal advisory role with the Zurich branch of Exit, Minelli formed Dignitas due to his frustrations with its structure. He was a target of prolonged criticism and insults as head of Dignitas, being labelled "Dr Death"{{efn|German: {{lang|de|"Dr. Tod"}}<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" />}} by newspapers and being accused of financially exploiting patients.<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" /> Dignitas was known for offering assisted suicide to non-Swiss citizens whose countries prohibit the practice.<ref name="BBC 2025">{{cite news |title=Ludwig Minelli: Dignitas founder dies by assisted suicide aged 92, group says |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79x8x82gy4o |access-date=1 December 2025 |publisher=BBC News |date=30 November 2025 |archive-date=30 November 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251130233342/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79x8x82gy4o |url-status=live }}</ref>
Minelli supported physician-assisted suicide and believed that it should be available to both healthy and sick individuals.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news |last=Gentleman |first=Amelia |author-link=Amelia Gentleman |title=Inside the Dignitas house |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/nov/18/assisted-suicide-dignitas-house |date=18 November 2009 |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 November 2009 |archive-date=5 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905045910/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/nov/18/assisted-suicide-dignitas-house |url-status=live }}</ref> He influenced other areas of Swiss jurisprudence through appeals to the Federal Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, which include a 1983 ruling that found that there were limited circumstances in which innocent parties are responsible for court costs.
== Life and career == === Early life === Ludwig Amadeus Minelli was born in Zurich on 5 December 1932, the eldest of four children born to a house painter and decorator.<ref>{{cite news |last=Javaid |first=Maham |date=2 December 2025 |title=Ludwig Minelli, founder of leading assisted suicide group, ends his life at 92 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/01/ludwig-minelli-assisted-suicide-dignitas/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=2 December 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=3 December 2025 |title=Ludwig Minelli, Swiss lawyer who founded the assisted suicide clinic Dignitas |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/12/03/ludwig-minelli-founder-of-swiss-clinic-dignitas/ |access-date=3 December 2025 |work=The Telegraph |archive-date=13 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251213010246/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/12/03/ludwig-minelli-founder-of-swiss-clinic-dignitas/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Minelli grew up in Küsnacht, in the canton of Zurich.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /><ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024">{{cite news |last1=Blumer |first1=Claudia |title=Man nannte ihn «Dr. Tod» |url=https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sterbehilfe-pionier-ludwig-minelli-91-hat-noch-nicht-genug-297262340859 |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=Tages-Anzeiger |date=20 April 2024 |language=de |archive-date=21 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250821030410/https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sterbehilfe-pionier-ludwig-minelli-91-hat-noch-nicht-genug-297262340859 |url-status=live }}</ref> He recalled developing a sense for "justice" in 1944, when a substitute teacher in his primary school class hit a younger pupil: "during the next break, I complained to a neighbouring farmer who I knew was on the school board".<ref name="WOZ 2017">{{cite news |last1=Riklin |first1=Adrian |title=«Minelli contre Suisse»: Es begann mit einem simplen Branchentelefonbuch |url=https://www.woz.ch/1715/minelli-contre-suisse/es-begann-mit-einem-simplen-branchentelefonbuch |access-date=30 November 2025 |work=WOZ Die Wochenzeitung |date=13 April 2017 |number=15 |language=de |archive-date=2 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251202153217/https://www.woz.ch/1715/minelli-contre-suisse/es-begann-mit-einem-simplen-branchentelefonbuch |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|German: {{lang|de|«Es war noch Krieg, und unser Lehrer musste in den Militärdienst. Der Verweser, der ihn vertrat, schlug eines Tages einem Viertklässler mit einem Lineal über den Handrücken. Da beschwerte ich mich in der nächsten Pause bei einem benachbarten Landwirt, von dem ich wusste, dass er in der Schulpflege sass.»}}<ref name="WOZ 2017" />}} As a child, he wanted to become a priest and later in university, he ruminated on an acting career before settling on journalism and completing his diploma.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /><ref name="WOZ 2017" />
=== Journalism and legal career === Minelli worked at his father's painting business, an accounting firm and then the Swiss Treasury Company, before he started his career as a journalist at ''Die Tat''.<ref name="WOZ 2017" /> He worked as a journalist for around 15 years,<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" /> including a stint as the first Swiss correspondent at the German news magazine ''Der Spiegel'' in 1964, after freelancing for some years.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" />
An "electrifying moment" came when Minelli reported on the ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and realized that he would want his life's work to focus on the right to die.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /> Another influential event was the protracted death of his grandmother from kidney failure earlier in his time at ''Der Spiegel''.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /><ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" /> He began law school in 1977, shortly after the ECHR was ratified, and he began practicing human rights law four years later.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /> According to the newspaper ''WOZ'', he influenced other areas of Swiss jurisprudence, such as his cases to the Federal Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, including a 1983 ruling that found that there were limited circumstances in which innocent parties are responsible for court costs.<ref name="WOZ 2017" />
Minelli was also the founder and general secretary of the Swiss Society for the European Convention on Human Rights.<ref>{{cite news | last = Wheatley | first = Jane | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article646465.ece | title = LUDWIG MINELLI: Suicide missionary | work = The Times | date = 22 September 2006| access-date = 17 July 2009}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
=== Assisted-dying advocacy === Minelli joined the Zurich branch of Exit, an assisted-dying organization as the legal advisor in 1992.<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" /><ref name="Atlantic 2010" /> Swiss law does not prohibit assisted suicide unless motivated by "selfish reasons".<ref name="Le Monde 2008">{{cite news |title=En Suisse, rendez-vous avec la mort |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2008/05/24/en-suisse-rendez-vous-avec-la-mort_1049148_3214.html |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=Le Monde |date=24 May 2008 |language=fr |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324011912/https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2008/05/24/en-suisse-rendez-vous-avec-la-mort_1049148_3214.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Eventually becoming disillusioned with the organization, he formed Dignitas with two former colleagues briefly after resigning from his position at a board of directors meeting in May 1998.<ref name="FT interview 2023">{{cite news |last1=Mance |first1=Henry |title=Dignitas founder Ludwig Minelli: 'We should have the freedom to choose how we die' |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0f9616d6-b544-485d-b4f3-df5245b8b43d |access-date=30 November 2025 |work=Financial Times |url-access=subscription |date=7 May 2023 |archive-date=20 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251220105541/https://www.ft.com/content/0f9616d6-b544-485d-b4f3-df5245b8b43d |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Atlantic 2010" /> He had facilitated the suicide of 6 Swiss nationals by the end of that year.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /> Dignitas eventually received international attention for offering assisted suicide to non-Swiss citizens whose countries prohibit the practice.<ref name="BBC 2025"/> Minelli said in an interview in March 2008 that Dignitas had assisted 840 people to die, 60% of them Germans.<ref>{{cite news |title="Wenn Sie das trinken, gibt es kein Zurück" |url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/Sterbehilfe-Dignitas-Minelli;art1117,2502357 |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=Der Tagesspiegel |date=29 March 2008 |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531114909/http://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/Sterbehilfe-Dignitas-Minelli;art1117,2502357 |archive-date=31 May 2008}}</ref>
Dignitas proved controversial,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Obituaries |first=Telegraph |date=2025-12-03 |title=Ludwig Minelli, Swiss lawyer who founded the assisted suicide clinic Dignitas |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/12/03/ludwig-minelli-founder-of-swiss-clinic-dignitas/ |access-date=2025-12-31 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=13 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251213010246/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/12/03/ludwig-minelli-founder-of-swiss-clinic-dignitas/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mengewein |first=Deborah Ball And Julia |date=2010-02-06 |title=Assisted-Suicide Pioneer Stirs a Legal Backlash in Switzerland |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703414504575001363599545120 |access-date=2025-12-31 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004170827/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703414504575001363599545120 |url-status=live }}</ref> and Minelli as head of the organization was a frequent target of criticism and insults, including from prosecutors and church and media figures. Dignitas's services to foreigners were characterized as "death tourism", Minelli was personally accused of exploiting patients for profit, while newspapers labelled him as "Dr Death" (German: {{lang|de|"Dr. Tod"}}).<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" /> Though he was primarily known for his advocacy for assisted dying, he pushed back against the qualification as "too imprecise".<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" />
In a 2010 interview with ''The Atlantic'' magazine, Minelli admitted to depositing cremation urns containing the ashes of Dignitas members at Lake Zurich.<ref name="Atlantic 2010">{{cite news |last1=Falconer |first1=Bruce |title=Death Becomes Him |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/death-becomes-him/307916/ |access-date=30 November 2025 |work=The Atlantic |date=March 2010 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=2 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251202143427/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/death-becomes-him/307916/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Follain |first1=John |last2=Hashash |first2=Sara |title=Ashes of 50 Brits dumped in lake |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/inspiration/ski-holiday/ashes-of-50-brits-dumped-in-lake-brb9g6fs0nc |access-date=30 November 2025 |work=The Times |date=9 May 2010 |archive-date=19 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251219123036/https://www.thetimes.com/travel/inspiration/ski-holiday/ashes-of-50-brits-dumped-in-lake-brb9g6fs0nc |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="FT interview 2023" /> A 2018 court case against Minelli focused on the circumstances surrounding the death of a woman who had bequeathed Dignitas 100,000 Swiss francs in her will. The organisation had found the woman a fourth doctor who prescribed the medication for assisted suicide after three doctors previously declined her request and the case accused him of profiteering from his clients.<ref name="FT interview 2023" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Huggler |first1=Justin |title=Founder of Swiss assisted suicide organisation on trial for profiteering from his clients |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/18/founder-swiss-assisted-suicide-organisation-trial-profiteering/ |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=18 May 2018 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=8 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251208185445/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/18/founder-swiss-assisted-suicide-organisation-trial-profiteering/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Personal life and death== Minelli was an atheist.<ref name="Atlantic 2010" /> His daughter is author and filmmaker {{ill|Michèle Minelli|de}}.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Guanziroli |first1=Silvana |title=Diese Frau geht über Leichen |url=http://www.blick.ch/people-tv/schweiz/michele-minelli-diese-frau-geht-ueber-leichen-id2475205.html |access-date=30 November 2025 |work=SonntagsBlick |date=13 October 2013 |language=de |archive-date=28 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628192758/https://www.blick.ch/people-tv/schweiz/michele-minelli-diese-frau-geht-ueber-leichen-id2475205.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2010, Minelli was reported to have become a millionaire. He said that the wealth had come from his mother's inheritance.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dignitas founder is millionaire |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/7851615/Dignitas-founder-is-millionaire.html |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=24 June 2010 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=6 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250906021102/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/switzerland/7851615/Dignitas-founder-is-millionaire.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Minelli died by assisted suicide on 29 November 2025 at his home in Forch, in the municipality of Maur, aged 92.<ref name="BBC 2025"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Aide au suicide. Le fondateur de Dignitas Ludwig A. Minelli est décédé |url=https://www.laliberte.ch/articles/le-fondateur-de-dignitas-ludwig-a-minelli-est-decede-1254618 |access-date=30 November 2025 |work=La Liberté |date=30 November 2025 |language=fr |archive-date=5 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251205092928/https://www.laliberte.ch/articles/le-fondateur-de-dignitas-ludwig-a-minelli-est-decede-1254618 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="NYT">{{cite web|first1=Adam |last1=Nossiter | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/world/europe/ludwig-minelli-dead.html |title=Ludwig Minelli, Founder of Swiss Assisted-Suicide Group, Dies at 92. |website=The New York Times |date=3 December 2025}}</ref> In the previous year, he affirmed his willingness to die by assisted suicide and had said that he had planned to hold a celebration at which his close friends and family, including his children and grandchildren, would be present when he died.<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2024" />
==Selected works== *{{cite journal | last = Minelli | first = Ludwig | editor-last = Robertson-von Trotha | editor-first = Caroline Y. | editor-link = Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. | title = Tod und Sterben in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Eine interdisziplinäre Auseinandersetzung | journal = Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society | volume = 3 | location = Baden-Baden | year = 2008 |ref=no |language=de}}
==See also== *Euthanasia in Switzerland
==Notes== {{Noteslist}}
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|4612226}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minelli, Ludwig}} Category:1932 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century Swiss lawyers Category:Swiss activists Category:Euthanasia activists Category:People from Zurich Category:2025 suicides Category:University of Zurich alumni Category:Swiss atheists Category:Suicides in Switzerland Category:Deaths by euthanasia Category:Male suicides