Intended for healthcare professionals

News Roundup [abridged Versions Appear In The Paper Journal]

Swiss parliament may try to ban “suicide tourism”

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7383.242 (Published 01 February 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:242
  1. Clare Dyer, legal correspondent
  1. BMJ

    The Swiss authorities are considering a ban on “suicide tourism,” after a Briton with advanced motor neurone disease ended his life in Zurich with the help of the assisted suicide group Dignitas.

    Reginald Crew, 74, a former car worker from Merseyside, flew to the city with his wife and daughter on 20 January and died after taking a drink laced with a lethal dose of barbiturates. The number of foreigners travelling to Zurich to kill themselves grew from just three in 2000 to 55 last year. But a bill introduced by a Swiss member of parliament can not become law before the end of 2004.

    Mr Crew is the second Briton to use the services of Dignitas, which cost only £50 ($82; ‡75). Merseyside Police are compiling a report on the circumstances surrounding the death for the director of public prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, amid suggestions that Mr Crew's wife, Win, 71, could be prosecuted for aiding and abetting a suicide. But criminal law experts have cast doubt on whether her actions amount to a crime under English law, and a prosecution seems unlikely.

    Merseyside's chief constable, Norman Bettison, said police had consulted extensively with the Liverpool coroner and the crown prosecution service and would be producing a factual report “so the legal implications can be considered more fully.”

    He added: “At this stage we hope to be able to carry out the inquiries without having to bother Mr Crew's wife or close family. Whilst we need to fulfil our responsibilities, we are very conscious that this is a sad and traumatic time for Mrs Crew and her family and have no wish whatsoever to compound the grief they must be suffering at this time.”

    In the wake of Mr Crew's death, a confidential online poll by the doctors' information service Medix UK (http://www.medix-uk.com/) drew responses from 1002 doctors, 55% of whom thought that doctor assisted suicide should be available to someone with a debilitating terminal illness and uncontrollable physical suffering.

    However, only 34% of the doctors wanted British law to be changed to permit this, 45% were against a change in the law, and 21% were unsure. Forty per cent of the doctors said they had been asked by patients to assist in their suicide or in euthanasia. Of the doctors who looked after patients with untreatable and debilitating long term illnesses, 46% had been approached by at least one patient asking for help to die.

    The Voluntary Euthanasia Society has written to the director of public prosecutions asking him to clarify his policy on prosecuting assisted suicides. His spokeswoman said, “The director has no plans to issue guidance on this matter.”