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‘SUICIDE TOURISM’ TO Switzerland has doubled within the space of four years, according to a major study published today.
The number of individuals travelling to the country, where assisted suicide is legal, to die at clinics such as Dignitas, rose from 86 in 2009 to 172 in 2012.
Between 2008 and 2012, a total of two Irish residents engaged in what is known as “suicide tourism,” according to the study published today in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Who and why?
Significantly, researchers found that nearly half (47%) of those who travelled from abroad for an assisted suicide had neurological conditions such as ALS/motor neurone disease or Parkinson’s disease.
Among the 611 individuals who had an assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic from 2008-2012, ages ranged between 23 and 97 years, and 58% were women.
Residents of Germany and the UK alone made up nearly two thirds of the numbers, while in total, people from 31 different countries went to Switzerland for an assisted suicide in this time period.
All bar four of the cases reported were handled by Dignitas, the group which operates assisted suicide clinics in Switzerland.
The researchers, led by Dr Saskia Gauthier at the University of Zurich, suggest that the availability of assisted suicide in Switzerland, and the phenomenon of suicide tourism that results from it, is changing how other countries debate the issue.
Dr Charles Foster from Oxford University, speaking in an English context, laid out two ways in which the sharply increasing use of Swiss clinics was leading to even more talk about legalisation of assisted suicide abroad.
The first is the liberalisation of public opinion that comes naturally, if irrationally, with familiarity.
And the second is the slowly growing public acknowledgement that there is something intellectually, if not morally, uncomfortable, about getting another country to do your dirty work.
Tom Curran, partner of right-to-die campaigner the late Marie Fleming, revealed in March that he was drafting legislation that would legalise assisted suicide in Ireland.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie, Curran said he had set up a working group of four barristers to draw up the planned bill.
In April 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by Fleming, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), which sought to establish a constitutional right to die.
She died just before Christmas last year.
Scroll down to read today’s study in full.
http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/08/jme102091.pdf
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Seriously, do these storms only work weekends!!! I know it hasn’t exactly been lovely weather during the week days too but it seems every weekend comes with a risk of events being cancelled due to storms lately.
@Kevin Hill: yeah, they looking for some leisure over weekends.
@Kevin Hill: that’s the great thing about the weather. It loves to annoy the weekend snobs who think work is only Monday to Friday.
@Kevin Hill: they get double time for weekends..
@Kevin Hill: yep.. can’t be damaging the economy too much,eh?.. same with the first confirmed corona virus case.. hehe.. IN NORTHERN IRELAND! but the person landed in Dublin..
@Ashley Rowland: Fair enough but that doesn’t take away from the fact the majority of sporting/social events are scheduled for weekends.
@Kevin Hill: i wonder does a red *wind warning mean business are expected to close like a ‘regular’ red
@Ashley Rowland: snobs? Wouldn’t go that flar
@munsterman1: do you really
“Emergency” “Storm” “Covid 19” “Crisis”
Just a few of words from some of today’s headlines,, it’s almost like the media is trying to keep us in perpetual fear,, for or own good of course ;) I’ll get my tin foil hat….:)
@devils avacado: I think there is too much news in general, they milk the sh*t out of everything.
@Laughable: agree I think it started with rise of 24 hour news channels,at the end of the day they have to fill them with something.
@ed w: same with “Breaking News” on Sky … you sit up and become alert only to find that joe soap was fined €5 for throwing away his chip bag ! ..
@devils avacado: ha there is a serious side to your post ……increasingly as more and more media shifts online – their business models increasingly are driven by the numbers of clicks – so stories that are ‘trending’ on twitter or of a more sensationalised nature increasingly get published – at least in the more traditional media even if papers went more tabloid or populist there was room for travel features or sports stories in greater detail – now we have a cocktail of media constantly pushing for the most clicks mixed with an over americanisation hence we get plenty of Trump Trump Trump and ‘How does the Iowa Caucuses work ‘ and not enough real life reporting about whats happening in Ireland ( especially outside the M50 ) – the fear mongering format / model ( american news TV / Fox news style ) crept into the narrative years ago but the shift tom online shows a real decline as media increasingly descends into clickbait battles for attention – and it ain’t for the better IMO.
@Laughable: agree but I think people are starting to wake up to MSM and the fact the plolical establishment are controlling said media organisations.. MSP is what we see & the P for propaganda & arrogance = power – elections + p1ssed of people of all ages = failed government
Never get the garden done thanks to Ciara, Dennis and Jorge. Will just have to tidy the garage now. Feck sake.
@Simon O Flaherty: grass needs cutting again already!
@Simon O Flaherty: What happened to E, F, G, H and I?
@Damien Mc Padden: this one was named by the Spanish, don’t we will get to use those Letters soon enough :-)
Just a little breeze to spread the Corona virus around a bit.
I think the met office should stop using county boundaries for weather warnings.. like east Galway and Sligo are orange but Roscommon is only yellow despite most of it being further west than two orange (coloured) counties. This means little until warning go to red and offices and shops close when maybe they did not need to.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: One of the prime factors in issuing a warning is that people understand easily and quickly the areas likely to be hit and whether or not they are affected.
Despite it’s obvious faults which you point out, counties are by far the easiest way of doing this.
Any other geographical subdivision such as Baronies, Parishes, Electoral Divisions or townlands would be nightmare to administer.
Regardless of what you use you would have to ensure that everyone knew for sure whether it affected them so using terms like the west of Ireland, east Galway or north Munster isn’t a runner as a large proportion of people wouldn’t be sure whether it affected them or not.
Just drawing a line on a map wouldn’t work either as how do you explain that on a radio broadcast?
@Stanley Marsh: Yes, but Niall’s comment is spot-on…I’m sure the populous could handle something like (West Roscommon – Orange: Eastern Roscommon – Yellow)…Met Eireann did something similar last time (though I can’t remember exactly) but I think poor auld Leitrim was yellow and Sligo and Donegal were orange for a while (before the whole country turned orange)…:-)
@Spartacus Ireland: Or sure go the whole hog and if part of the county should be orange just make the whole county orange :-)
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I’d say most people would use their heads and would know that crossing a county border does not mean an instant change in the weather.
@Spartacus Ireland: You can’t do that because there is no defined area called ‘west Roscommon’.
You’d have to pre-define on a map exactly what areas are included in such a division.
If you didn’t Met Eireann would be leaving themselves open if something major happened in any ‘grey’ area between west and east Roscommon.
One of the main defining features of this storm is the potential severe winds on west Atlantic coasts but Limerick doesn’t have an Atlantic coast so it’s not included even though if you look on the wind map the inland winds will be as bad as anywhere.
@Stanley Marsh: ah here stanley, your confusing ppl with reason and logic. Down with that sorta thing :)
@Spartacus Ireland: and there should be a dedicated working group set up to define what areas are included in west Roscommon & south Sligo etc etc…… any chance of common sense being used
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I think you are referring to the Met Éireann chart they released on Thursday …
.. as of Friday afternoon the weather chart for tomorrow Saturday is Orange Status Wind Warning for the entire country starting @7AM …
Galway and Care have additional RED Wind Warning which is commencing @1PM Saturday lasting until at least 4PM
Red is effectively > 130 KPH .. which sustained Hurricane force winds ..
This is now the 4th storm to hit the Atlantic coastal counties in less than 3 weeks
Ciara , Denis , Ellen and now Jorge ….
Ellen was not so windy but it dropped a huge amount of Rainfall .. hence all flooding around the country ..
We lost power during Ciara and Denis …pretty certain it will go tomorrow as well
already starting to get very windy here in Galway..
True west of Ireland going to have bad weather, who would have thought it.
@Laughable:
It has been dire down hear… curagh line looks like a road threw a lake…
Another bloody weekend gone
@Laughable: hahahaha I know – what used to be a ‘soft day in Belmullet’ is a Met Eireann Status Red Warning nowadays ;-)) I lived in Florida a few years back and when they closed down towns for a hurricane warning and honestly we had been windsurfing in Belmullet in Mayo only a month before in stronger wind conditions hahaha
Well blow me (no, not like that) but these storms are starting to put the wind up me now.
Serious pain in the hole with all this rain. Grr.
Maps of Ireland with an orange western half and yellow eastern half seem to be standard recently. At least all the loose stuff has blown away by now. Will have to start giving us weather warnings for days that are not wet and windy.
@Conall: the last orange warning barely blew a branch off the trees. carnage a couple of nights later with no warning.
@ed w: It actually did enough damage in the west. Google it.
@Paul Furey: Don’t you know that if it didn’t happen near ed w them it didn’t happen at all!
Is there anything to be said for some wag to say ‘is there anything to be said for another mass Ted’? They will anyway
I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but it’s clearly Sinn Féin’s fault, right?
@jamesdecay: you’re mistaken. It’s hot air they blow, not the sort that’s on the way unfortunately!!!
@Paul Shepherd: take a bow sir!
I’m glad for the rain coming, my garden badly needs it.
Do the storms not come in alphabetical order, have i missed a few after storm Denis!?
@Stephen Sweeney: Jorge was named by the Spanish MET office so our (Ireland, Denmark and UK) naming system doesn’t apply.
@Stephen Sweeney: There was a storm Ellen after Denis.
corona virus comments blocked.. i read in the new york post it was a lab leak.. and guess which city the only bio lab in china is in
@Derek Gannon: oh dear
I’m still waiting for Storm Mary Lou
@Jeremy Finn:
Storm Gerry
Nothing has changed except the naming of storms and the introduction of traffic light warnings. The weather has just been it’s lousy self. These names and colours rarely reflect the reality they represent. Met Éireann should discontinue this practice and class it as no more than a failed experiment.
corona virus = germ warfare leak..
@Derek Gannon: from a tinfoil factory invented on social media.
Can we call the next storm “Kalamity”
I blame the virus
corona virus comments blocked ..
Well done Paul Dolan, you relax for your weekend while many Esb employees will be out constantly because of people who wouldn’t allow trees to be cut and flying debris ,look across Europe and see restoration times then come back with your uneducated remarks
This storm is almost as difficult to pronounce as ‘ Eyjafjallajökull’.
How come Northern Ireland gets away with all this shite weather?Still looks very grey up there.
Power out? Well that’ll make a change…
@Jane Alford: yes, all due to a poor ESB network. You think after all this time, they can strengthen their network but no, they would loose their overtime if all these faults stopped
@Paul Dolan: they must have the same system in the UK and elsewhere…..imagine that!!
@paul Dolan why a poor network how often do you lose power in non storm conditions ?
@ Paul Dolan idiot
A Fart in the wind
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