'Suicide Tourism' is Increasing in Switzerland

A new report shows increasing rates of "suicide tourism" in Switzerland.

Recent findings published in the journal Law, Ethics and Medicine have found that laws on assisted suicide are not so clean cut in the area.

"In the UK, at least, 'going to Switzerland' has become a euphemism for (assisted suicide)," the study authors noted. via CNN. "Six right-to-die organizations assist in approximately 600 cases of suicide per year; some 150-200 of which are suicide tourists."

In the report, Dr. Saskia Gauthier of the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Zurich analyzed data from the Institute and found that from 2008 to 2012, the number of deaths through suicide tourism had nearly doubled. Furthermore, there were a total of 611 tourists from 31 nations between the ages of 23 and 97 who had traveled to the area to end their lives.

Throughout the four-year study period, researchers found that 58 percent of the 611 assisted suicides were women, with the average patient age around 69. Findings also revealed that the majority of patients came from Germany and Britain. However, the number of participants from Italy grew from just four cases in 2009 to 22 in 2012.

"It's clearly unethical to force dying Britons to travel abroad to die through a lack of safeguarded choice in this country," said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, via BBC News. "But there is also a patient safety issue. We have no control over the law in Switzerland, but we can and should regulate and safeguard assisted dying in this country."