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Showing posts with label Switzerland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Switzerland. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Suicide tourism: a pilot study on the Swiss phenomenon

By S. Gauthier, J. Mausbach, T. Reisch, and C. Bartsch
J Med Ethics doi:10.1136/medethics-2014-102091

Abstract

While assisted suicide (AS) is strictly restricted in many countries, it is not clearly regulated by law in Switzerland. This imbalance leads to an influx of people—‘suicide tourists’—coming to Switzerland, mainly to the Canton of Zurich, for the sole purpose of committing suicide. Political debate regarding ‘suicide tourism’ is taking place in many countries. Swiss medicolegal experts are confronted with these cases almost daily, which prompted our scientific investigation of the phenomenon. The present study has three aims: (1) to determine selected details about AS in the study group (age, gender and country of residence of the suicide tourists, the organisation involved, the ingested substance leading to death and any diseases that were the main reason for AS); (2) to find out the countries from which suicide tourists come and to review existing laws in the top three in order to test the hypothesis that suicide tourism leads to the amendment of existing regulations in foreign countries; and (3) to compare our results with those of earlier studies in Zurich. We did a retrospective data analysis of the Zurich Institute of Legal Medicine database on AS of non-Swiss residents in the last 5 years (2008–2012), and internet research for current legislation and political debate in the three foreign countries most concerned. We analysed 611 cases from 31 countries all over the world. Non-terminal conditions such as neurological and rheumatic diseases are increasing among suicide tourists. The unique phenomenon of suicide tourism in Switzerland may indeed result in the amendment or supplementary guidelines to existing regulations in foreign countries.

The entire story is here.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Assisted suicide could be 'legalised' in groundbreaking case

Sarah Boseley, Health Editor

A 46-year-old-man who wants to die after a stroke that left him almost completely paralysed is bringing a groundbreaking legal action that could effectively lead to the legalisation of assisted suicide in the UK.

Martin, as he has agreed to be called to preserve his anonymity and that of his family, was a fit and active man who enjoyed rugby, cars and socialising with friends in the pub before suffering a brainstem stroke three years ago. Now requiring round-the-clock care, his mobility is limited to moving his eyes and small movements of his head. He communicates by staring at letters on a computer screen which the machine recognises and forms into words spoken by a digitised voice.

Martin has been asking to die since six months after the stroke but says he has no one willing to assist him and cannot on his own organise a trip to the Swiss clinic Dignitas, where he could end his life legally. His wife, who chooses to be known as Felicity, says she will be with him if he dies but will not help bring about his death.

Human rights lawyers at the firm Leigh Day in London have taken the first step in an action on Martin's behalf that, if successful, could have massive implications. One possibility is that the case could lead to a court ruling that Martin has the right to help not only from a paid professional to assist him get to Switzerland, but also to the services of a palliative care doctor in the UK to ease his death, should he decide to end his life by refusing food and drink.

Such a ruling would dramatically alter the current options for seriously ill and severely disabled people who wish to end their own lives in the UK. "There would be no more planes to Switzerland," said Richard Stein of Leigh Day. "Why would you bother?"

However, Stein added that beginning this legal action would potentially put the lawyers working on it in legal difficulty, since both they and any doctor or psychiatrist who came to examine Martin for the case could be considered to be assisting his suicide, thus exposing them to potential prosecution or disciplinary action from professional bodies.

The rest of the story and the video can be found here.
A prior post on assisted suicide can be found here.