Ruth Institute Blog

Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow -

Switzerland has earned a reputation for suicide tourism.

Although assisted suicide is technically illegal in the country, it is tolerated if the person assisting is not doing so for personal profit. But the reputation has prompted the Swiss to crack down, according to media reports. Rita Marker, head of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (ITF), reports that this “crack down” is not as serious as the public may think.
 
“Although many people think, ‘Ah, the Swiss are getting with it. At least they’re going to put some restrictions on,’ it’s not a done deal,” she explains. “And in fact, there are three things going on: Two proposals to tighten up and put some restrictions on it, and the other one to force nursing homes to allow assisted suicide at the nursing homes.”
 
Marker does not believe the Swiss are really worried about their international image.
 
“They’re not really getting a bad rap,” Marker notes. “I think people began to become aware of what they were allowing there and what was taking place there, and now they’re trying to save face by putting on what they are going to call ‘restrictions,’ making it sound like they are tightening up the restrictions – but really it’s not really going to be that much.”
 
The head of ITF adds that in putting restrictions on it, the Swiss are saying at the same time that assisted suicide is okay.