In 1994, councillor Victor Ruffy petitioned the Swiss Federal Council to set up an initiative for the legal regulation of euthanasia. In March 1997 the Federal Department of Justice and Police set up a working group and charged it with investigating the medical, ethical and legal issues surrounding this topic. The working group presented its report in April 1999 in which it recommends the explicit statutory regulation of indirect and passive euthanasia which in any case are legal in Switzerland. The majority of the working group further recommended to exempt active euthanasia from being a punishable offence in certain cases. The Federal Council acknowledged this report in January 2000 and submitted its own report in July 2000. The Council agreed with the working group's recommendation to regulate indirect and passive euthanasia legally, but rejected the working group's call for a "very restricted exemption" of direct active euthanasia from being a punishable offence.