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Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss are considering measures that could change the country’s reputation for easy access to assisted suicide. One is a proposal to modify the penal code, put forward by the Federal Council. The other is a ballot measure in the city of Zurich that would substantially increase the cost of seeking assisted suicide there.

Zurich citizens will vote 26 November on a popular initiative to dissuade “death tourism”, which was proposed by the Zurich chapter of the UDF party, the right-wing Federal Democratic Union. If accepted, people would have to pay a CHF50,000 fine unless they had been domiciled in Zurich for at least a year. The Zurich city council failed to get the 114 votes, a two-thirds majority, needed keep the initiative off the ballot: it voted 98 to 63 not accept the proposed initiative.

Exit rejects Federal Council’s proposed changes to law in Switzerland

The Federal Council is proposing changes to the penal code that will lead to assisted suicide being considered criminal in Switzerland, according to Exit, a Zurich-based Swiss assisted-suicide group. Exit argues against the government’s proposed changes in a 33-page position paper (Ger) published 25 January as part of the consultative phase Switzerland often requires before laws are changed. Exit maintains that the changes would restrict a person’s freedom to choose how to end his or her life, and make it impossible for trained and experienced assisted-suicide workers to participate.

The government’s other option is to ban assisted suicide outright, it has suggested.

Contradictory court rulings in Britain

Twenty-three Britons have chosen to die at Dignitas, an assisted-suicide group based in Zurich, in the past year, reports the Telegraph. The British press is leading a national debate on the issue, following this past week’s two court rulings on assisted suicide in Britain. A week ago, a mother was sentenced to nine years in prison for administering a lethal dose of heroin to her severely brain-damaged son, who received his injuries in a road accident.

One week later, Kay Gilderdale was acquitted by a jury of murdering her daughter, who suffered from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) a neuro-degenerative disease. Her daughter died in 2008. The jury took into consideration the fact that the young woman had signed a living will and had previously attempted suicide, and that Gilderdale admitted to her doctor and to the police what she had done. She was given a conditional 12-month sentence for attempted murder. The ruling provoked supporters to call for changes in the law on assisted suicide.

Background: “UK clarifies its position on assisted suicide“, 24 September 2009, GenevaLunch

Links to other sites: 20Minutes, BBC, The Telegraph