16 May,2011 08:46 AM IST | | Zurich
Swiss city wants to continue to allow assisted suicide for non-residents
Voters in the Swiss city of Zurich rejected on Sunday proposed bans on assisted suicide and "suicide tourism", or foreigners travelling to Switzerland to receive help ending their lives. Early projections showed voters had rejected both initiatives in local referendums by about 80 percent, a Swiss news agency reported. Assisted suicide has been allowed in Switzerland since 1941 if performed by a non-physician who has no vested interest in the death. Euthanasia, or "mercy killing", is legal only in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the US state of Oregon.
Many terminally ill foreigners from Germany, France, Britain etc travel to Switzerland to commit suicide, taking advantage of the Swiss rules which are among the world's most liberal on suicide. But a rise in the number of foreigners seeking to end their lives in Switzerland, and a study showing that more and more people seeking assisted suicides in the country do not suffer from a terminal illness, have provoked heated debate.
The Swiss government has said it is looking to change the law on assisted suicide to make sure it was used only as a last resort by the terminally ill, and to limit "suicide tourism". Right-to-die group Exit has agreed rules to govern assisted suicide with prosecutors in Zurich in the hope they might eventually form the basis of national regulation. Dignitas, the Swiss association that helps applicants commit suicide, assisted 1,138 suicides in 2010. Of these cases, 592 came from Germany, 118 from Switzerland, 102 from France, 19 from Italy, 18 from the US and 16 from Spain.u00a0
200 No of people who commit assisted suicide each year in Zurich
