Palliative care: is Switzerland a good place for the terminally ill?

Assisted suicide in Switzerland has long attracted international attention. But its palliative care system is less well known. This form of support at the end of life is underfunded even as demand outstrips capacity. "I'm going to Switzerland." In some countries, this sentence is synonymous with the decision to opt for assisted suicide. The Alpine nation is one of the most liberal countries when it comes to assisted suicide, with around 1,500 people every year choosing to end their lives voluntarily. But this does not make Switzerland a model country when it comes to palliative care. According to an international study published in 2022 by researchers from Singapore and the United States, Switzerland ranks 13th out of 81 countries in terms of the best “quality of dying”. In first place is the United Kingdom, the country where palliative care originated. The survey analysed the quality of palliative care on the basis of a questionnaire sent to experts in each country.