Brits travelling to Swiss suicide clinics to pay ‘death tax’

UK makes moves to curb 'death tourism'

Travel Insurance News - 26/01/2010

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Brits travelling to suicide clinics in Switzerland could face a death tax of £30,000.

In the UK, anyone who helps a suicide can be imprisoned for 14 years, yet no one has been put on trial. This situation has forced people to travel to Swiss clinics to kill themselves.

To put an end to Switzerland’s 'death tourism’, local politicians have implemented a new proposal that would make it very expensive for foreigners to finish their life in clinics. Already 23 Brits had been reported to have died last year at Dignitas, a suicide clinic in Zurich, while hundreds more are assumed to be on the waiting list.

Electorates in Switzerland will be casting their votes later this year to decide whether the new 'death tax' is to be passed as a law. If ever, suicide clinics like Dignitas will face huge fines for assisting any person who has not resided in Zurich for a year.

Currently, Dignitas charges £5,000 just to organize a suicide. Swiss politicians believe that the price could be six times more if the proposal will be passed.

Opposing suicide clinics, Daniel Suter from the Swiss Federal Democratic Union Party (EDU) informed that people normally come to Zurich just few days before they want to die. With the new proposal, people will be required first to live in Zurich for a year. As a result, foreigners will be discouraged from coming into the city, thus cutting down the number of suicides significantly.

The referendum was meanwhile welcomed by pro-life groups in the UK. Peter Saunders, a representative of Care Not Killing, said that the new proposal just shows the growing public criticism against Switzerland’s suicide tourism.

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