http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6894726.ece
Swiss crackdown on ‘suicide tourism’ could spell end of Dignitas clinic
Roger Boyes
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One of the Dignitas apartments is located in this block in Zürich
Switzerland announced plans yesterday to crack down on “suicide tourism”, signalling that it might close the Dignitas clinic that has helped hundreds of terminally ill people to take their lives.The plans — in the form of two draft Bills that will be offered for public debate — are likely to set off a rush of patients from Britain and elsewhere in Europe since Switzerland has become the main destination for those seeking assisted suicide.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Justice Minister, said that two options would be presented to parliament. Either clinics such as Dignitas and Exit, which deals chiefly with Swiss patients, will have to accept much stricter regulation or they will be closed down.
The tightening of the rules would require patients to present two medical opinions declaring their disease incurable, that death is expected within months and that they have made their decision of sound mind and fully aware of their options.
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These guidelines, said the minister, appeal to common sense. And even in the most controversial clinic, Dignitas, these rules are already broadly adhered to. But critics have accused Dignitas of widening its criteria. Some patients are not terminally ill and at least a few would-be suicides are suffering from clinical depression.The plan is thus to slow down the process and make it a more considered, and carefully policed, decision.
“It won’t be possible in future for someone to cross the border and commit suicide a few days later with the help of an organisation,” Ms Widmer-Schlumpf said. She did not stipulate how long the waiting period should last because that would be decided on each case individually. But the assisted suicide clinics are financially dependent on large numbers of patients passing relatively quickly through the system. So far Dignitas has benefited from the liberal rules in the canton of Zürich.
If the law goes through — the deliberation period lasts until March and the restrictions could come in soon afterwards — the federal Swiss state will have to take over the policing from regional authorities. Doctors’ recommendations will be controlled and those who prescribe fatal drugs observed more closely. The draft law will also ban any attempt to charge more than basic expenses for assisted suicide.
Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas, described the proposals as “outdated and patronising”. He has always argued that restricting assisted suicide will not cut the numbers but mean more people end their lives violently.
“By cutting off assisted suicide for chronically or psychologically ill people who are capable of informed choice the Government will promote lonely suicides on train tracks,” he said.
Whether the Swiss Government decides on tighter regulation or a ban, Mr Minelli will feel the squeeze. An outright ban would mean a complete rethink of suicide laws across Europe. The existence of the Swiss clinics has allowed other countries to resist liberalising their own laws. Mr Minelli has talked of setting up in Germany, but the legal obstacles are high there, too.
At the root of the Swiss Government’s initiative is a fear that the cheerful Heidi-and-cowbells image is being tarnished by suicide tourists. About 400 turned to clinics for help in committing suicide in 2007, 132 of them from abroad. Even so, it is a big step for the Swiss authorities, who are reluctant to regulate over the heads of their autonomous cantons.
At least 119 Britons are known to have ended their lives at Dignitas. Up to 800 more are members of the organisation, the first step to dying there at some time in the future.
