Peter Baumann (Psychiatrist)

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Peter Baumann (* 1935) is a controverse Swiss Psychiatrist, who assisted suicides.

[edit] Life

Baumann began practising when 38 years old in Zurich. He specialised on the then-controverse Körpertherapie (A bodily approach to heal the mentally ill - Body work (alternative medicine)) and attracted attention with comments on Swiss military psychiatry. Baumann was also fighting for the reputation of LSD in an organisation that called itself "Schweizerische Ärztegesellschaft für Psycholytische Therapie" (SÄPT, another member was the also controverse Samuel Widmer.

Baumann didn’t start to work as a suicide assistant on his own account, but he worked as a medical examiner for “Exit (Switzerland)”. This organisation gave lethal doses of a barbiturate to deathly sick people, which had a recipe, legally allowed (commonly Pentobarbital sodium; An organisation with similar approach is the also Swiss "Dignitas".)

Later, Baumann became a standalone suicide assistant and began going one step further than the law allowed: He helped not only the deathly sick, but the mentally ill, too. Because he couldn’t get the special barbiturate recipe for those people, he had to invent makeshift methods including Bag and Band combined with Helium or Laughing Gas. (suitable barbiturates aren’t anymore available in Swiss drug stores legally allowed and the moderns sleeping pills even in high doses aren’t lethal.)

Using such methods, Baumann has helped around ten people, e.g. an anakastic personality and a heavily depressive woman, risking grave legal actions against himself. The public prosecution office Basel began investigating against Baumann because of the supposed matter of fact “vermutete Beihilfe zum Suizid aus selbstsüchtigen Motiven“ (literally: supposed suicide assistance with egoistic motive.) Towards the end of 2002 the society of Zurich physicians („Zürcher Ärztegesellschaft“) took actions against Baumann, whose work wasn’t anymore compatible with the ethics of the profession. Baumann prevented the exclusion by leaving the society by himself. He also left the Zurich society for psychiatry and psychotherapy (“Zürcher Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie“) Baumann, after his discharge from remand, gave the pledge of stopping acting actively in suicide assistance, but stays consultant for his club "Suizidhilfe Schweiz" (around 150 members).

[edit] Controversy

Assisting suicide is legally allowed in Switzerland under certain circumstances. The deathly sick always find a doctor prescribing the barbiturate. But Baumann wanted suicide assistance to be legally allowed for the judicious mentally ill, too. Experts don’t know, whether mentally ill can be judicious at all.

Baumann searched for freely available and “recipe-free” methods, that everyone can use. But most experts say, depression was treatable and temporary – Baumann’s idea would cause arbitrariness (“Willkür”).

The nation was shocked, when the programme „Rundschau“ on SF_1 showed Baumann helping the 60 years old heavily depressive and wheelchair-bound Heidi T. (Video material recorded the 2. November 2002, transmitted on the 15. Januar 2003). Baumann was said to be a disgusting sadist and criminal. It is also supposed, that Baumann doesn’t act in mercy, but rather in his own interest. He only wanted to reach the break-through of his political intentions, and therefor he abused his patients.

But it can be supposed, that the theme employs him deeper. He even was dedicated to it more than 30 years before the scandal (A Tages-Anzeiger-article of August 18 1973 proofs it: "Ist Leben freiwillig?", signed by Dr. med. Peter Baumann.) He also says, that, in his former job at “Exit”, it impressed him, to see "a gleam in the eyes of the people when they heard, that I will help em, that I prescribe the barbiturate.”