GENEVA – The Swiss government is proposing to ban or severely restrict assisted suicide as part of plans to tackle “suicide tourism”.
The BBC reports that more than 100 Britons with terminal or incurable illnesses have used the Swiss centre Dignitas to kill themselves.
Switzerland’s Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said groups like Dignitas would face prosecution if the proposals are passed into law and they do not comply.
As part of the proposals, patients would have to provide two separate medical opinions proving that they have a terminal illness and are expected only to have months to live.
Those who are chronically or mentally ill would find it more difficult to get help in ending their lives.
Ms Widmer-Schlumpf said, “We have no interest, as a country, in being attractive for suicide tourism.”
She said organisations involved in assisted suicide were “testing the boundaries of the law” and that deaths by this method should not become a “profit-driven business”.
