A middle-aged British couple suffering from chronic illnesses have been helped to commit suicide by a Swiss charity in a case that raises questions about Britain's ban on voluntary euthanasia.
Carers and authorities said Robert and Jennifer Stokes died on April 1 by swallowing a lethal dose of barbiturates in a Zurich flat hired by the Swiss charity Dignitas. Media said neither of them was terminally ill.Zurich District Attorney Edwin Luscher said more and more foreigners were using the assisted suicide charity.
"Switzerland apparently has the most liberal regulation on this issue so people from all over Europe come here to die," he told Reuters. "It is not good for Zurich's reputation that it provides suicide tourism. We would rather have tourism for the living, but apparently there is indeed a need (for this)."
Stokes, 59, suffered from epilepsy and his 53-year-old wife from diabetes and back problems, carers said.In January, a terminally ill British man, 74-year-old Reginald Crew, who suffered from motor neurone disease, became the first Briton publicly to end his own life in Switzerland, where helping a terminally ill patient to die is not illegal and widely considered to be a humane act.
Last May, Belgium joined the Netherlands as one of two European countries to actively decriminalise euthanasia. Britain's Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES) said most other European countries gave nominal sentences for assisted suicide.
A VES spokeswoman said on Tuesday a lack of government policy on assisted suicide gave Britons a green light to use the controversial Swiss clinic.
"Today's case is a very sad one," she said. "It shows how the law in this country isn't working.
"Because there is no government policy on assisted suicide it effectively gives a green light to use the clinic and many of those may be vulnerable."
The subject of voluntary euthanasia was recently brought to prominence by British woman Diane Pretty, who campaigned for her husband to get immunity from punishment if he helped her commit suicide.Pretty, who suffered motor neurone disease, lost her case at the European Court of Human Rights and died last May.