(LifeSiteNews) — A Swiss man who established an assisted suicide clinic in 1998 and became a pioneer in the field died via euthanasia on November 29, just days before his 93rd birthday.

Ludwig Minelli was the highly controversial founder of Dignitas, a Basel-based suicide clinic that was at the center of multiple scandals since it opened.

In 2014, an 85-year-old woman travelled to Dignitas to pay €10,000 to end her life because she was unhappy with her physical appearance. In 2013, a 62-year-old magistrate from southern Italy died at the clinic, though an autopsy would reveal he did not have a terminal illness. That same year, a Swiss court found Dr. Philippe Freiburghaus “crossed the line” by assisting in a suicide without obtaining a diagnosis. He was later acquitted in 2014.

Minelli reportedly made millions of dollars from assisted suicide. In 2010, a former Dignitas employee spoke about the many abuses that occurred there. The UK-based Guardian has reported that in 2024 Dignitas helped more than 4,000 persons end their lives.

Minelli was a committed atheist, though he reportedly desired to be a priest in his youth. He later became a journalist and a “human rights” lawyer in his 50s. His organization announced his passing in a press release. “The Dignitas team will continue to manage and develop the association in the spirit of its founder as a professional and combative international organization for self-determination and freedom of choice in life and at the end of life,” it said.

Last month a Dutch news site reported that a petition seeking to fully decriminalize assisted suicide in the Netherlands has received the necessary signatures to ensure a debate will occur on the subject in the country’s Parliament. The petition seeks to eliminate the last remaining restrictions the country has placed on assisted suicide, which was legalized in the country in 2002. In 2024, there were a reported 9,958 deaths caused by euthanasia.

Earlier this year, Fox News reporter Asra Nomani published an investigative report detailing the predatory-like behavior of what she calls “Assisted Suicide Inc.” Nomani’s research confirmed the growth of assisted suicide across the world via a “sprawling network changing laws worldwide” to even entice “mature minors” to kill themselves. She noted that in 2023 about 15,000 Canadians died through the immoral practice.

Multiple U.S. states have expanded euthanasia services in recent years as well. In October, the Illinois Senate approved a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide. If approved by pro-abortion Governor JB Pritzker, the bill would make Illinois the 11th state in the U.S. to allow it. Legalization bills are also currently being considered in Montana and New York. A 2024 Oregon assisted suicide report indicated there were 376 reported assisted suicide deaths that year.

In its weekly Desde la fe, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City, Mexico, rebuked the argument that assisted suicide is “death with dignity.” The archdiocese was pushing back against “The Law That Transcends,” a bill that was introduced in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies on October 19. It has the backing of several major political groups, including the ruling Morena party.

The Catholic Church specifically teaches that suicide or the intentional ending of one’s own life is gravely evil, as man is not the author of his own life. “Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2324) affirms.

If you or a loved one is suffering from thoughts of suicide or euthanasia, help is available. The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988.