“Suicide Tourism” and the Meaning of Suffering
By James Tonkowich

Close friends of ours want us to join them going to Switzerland, that is, going to the country of Switzerland to see the sights, hike, eat chocolate, and come home alive. The clarification is necessary since Switzerland is such a “suicide tourism” destination that in England the phrase “going to Switzerland” has come to mean committing assisted suicide.

According to a report in The Atlantic, a recent study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics found that from 2009 to 2012, suicide tourism to Switzerland doubled with between 150 and 200 traveling annually to end their lives. Nearly half are from Germany with many from the U.K. and France. Ages ranged from 23 to 97 and three out of five are women.
While many of the suicide tourists are terminal, non-fatal diseases drive the increase. According to The New Scientist, “Neurological diseases, only some of which are fatal, were given as the reason for 47 per cent of assisted suicides…. Rheumatic or connective tissue diseases, generally considered non-fatal, such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, accounted for 25 per cent of cases in the new study.”
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