Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Swiss Justice Minister is against "suicide/death tourism"

The Swiss Justice Minister - Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says she would like to end the practice of people travelling to Switzerland to die, commonly know as "suicide/death tourism".

Widmer-Schlumpf told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper "Today someone can come to Switzerland and already the next day can have an assisted suicide through one of these assisted suicide organisations. This should not be possible."

The Justice Minister would like to introduce a waiting period betwee the first contact made with the organisation and the assisted suicide death. The person would then undergo counselling during the waiting period, either from the organisation or from a third party.

She also called for assisted suicide groups to be financially transparent and she criticised the use of helium bags for death, known as "Exit Bags".

Link to the original article:
http://www.swissinfo.ch:80/eng/news_digest/Minister_against_death_tourism.html?siteSect=104&sid=9326513&cKey=1215950196000&ty=nd

Link to a related article on death tourism: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news_digest/Polls_show_opinions_differ_over_death_tourism.html?siteSect=104&sid=8290055&cKey=1192448436000&ty=st

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