Switzerland: Number of “suicide tourists” doubled in three years

0a11a_1079
0a11a_1079
Avatar of Linda Hohnholz
Written by Linda Hohnholz

British people are the second biggest group of “suicide tourists”, according to a new study, which shows that the number of people traveling to assisted dying clinics in Switzerland has doubled in

British people are the second biggest group of “suicide tourists”, according to a new study, which shows that the number of people traveling to assisted dying clinics in Switzerland has doubled in three years.

More than 600 people traveled to Switzerland for help taking their own lives between 2008 and 2012, at one of four clinics which permit non-Swiss nationals. The annual number of so-called suicide tourists doubled between 2009 and 2012, according to research carried out by the University of Zurich.

Despite attempts to change the law in the country, assisted dying clinics can operate legally in Switzerland, and have attracted large numbers of people with terminal illnesses and debilitating medical conditions, from other European countries where euthanasia is illegal.

The new analysis of the phenomenon reveals that 126 UK nationals were helped to die between 2008 and 2012 – making it the country with largest number of suicide tourists after Germany. One in three people who were helped to die were suffering from more than one condition, the researchers said, with neurological conditions the most common reason for seeking euthanasia, followed by cancer and rheumatic diseases, which are conditions of the joints and muscles.

The researchers said that the rise of suicide tourism had been a major factor in prompting debates in other countries over the ethics of euthanasia.

In the UK, Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill cleared its first hurdle in the House of Lords last month, following a 10-hour debate during its second reading. If eventually passed, the bill would bring in an historic change to the law, enabling terminally ill people to be given, at their request, assistance to end their own life.

Several polls in recent years have revealed strong levels of public support for some form of legalised assisted dying in the UK.

This latest study is published in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Writing in the journal, medical ethicist and lawyer Dr Charles Foster, a research associate at Oxford University’s Ethox Centre, said that connections between suicide tourism and the debate in the UK were not good arguments for changing the law.

“The first [connection] is the liberalisation of public opinion that comes naturally, if irrationally with familiarity,” he writes. “And the second is the slowly growing public acknowledgement that there is something intellectually, if not morally, uncomfortable, about getting another country to do your dirty work.”

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...