Assisted Suicide as a Remedy for Suffering? The End-of-Life Preferences of British "Suicide Tourists". Issue 4 (19th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Richards, Naomi
• Is Part Of: Medical anthropology. Volume 36:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 348
• Page End: 362
• Publication Date: 2017-05-19
• Subjects: Assisted suicide -- death and dying -- decision-making -- euthanasia -- suffering -- right-to-die; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; 362.1
• DOI: 10.1080/01459740.2016.1255610
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0145-9740

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The highly charged debate about the moral status of assisted suicide features regularly in the news media in medically advanced countries. In the United Kingdom, the debate has been dominated in recent years by a new mode of death: assisted suicide in Switzerland, so-called suicide tourism. Drawing on in-depth interviews with people who were actively planning on 'going to Switzerland, ' alongside participant-observation at a do-it-yourself self-deliverance workshop, I discuss how participants arrived at their decision to seek professionalized assistance. In doing so, I explore the constituent elements of people's suffering, examining how participants justified, rationalized, or sought authentication from a doctor for their decision to die in light of their own belief systems and aesthetic preferences for a good death.