Beautiful lakeside Zurich has offered an ironic glimmer of hope to people looking for a one-way ticket to the end of the line — suicide.Switzerland’s economic heartthrob is now known as an easy destination to end your life, the capital of what critics call ‘‘death tourism’’.And the cost of the journey is cheap — 16 to 32 Euros/Dollars to join one of the associations that operate under euphemistic names such as ‘‘Exit’’, ‘‘Dignitas’’ or ‘‘Suizihilfe’’, or suicide help. They do not advertise but have become widely known. Switzerland legalized assisted suicide in 1987 but has kept a low profile about the practice.‘‘Let’s be clear about this, we don’t help with suicide here by simply pushing a button,’’ said Zurich lawyer Ludwig Minelli who heads Dignitas, whose slogan is ‘‘Live with dignity, die with dignity’’.‘‘The entire process is relatively long. Between the first contact and death it can take several weeks, but in the most severe cases for patients in the final stages of a terminal illness it can happen much quicker,’’ he said. The overall procedure is simple. A candidate pays the requisite fee to join Dignitas or one of the other similar associations, which then handles the rest. At Dignitas, a candidate must explain why he wants to end his life and provide medical documents on his state of health. Dignitas then looks for a doctor willing to prescribe a lethal dose of medicine.‘‘If the candidate is depressed, we require him to take several weeks to reconsider his decision,’’ said Minelli. But for those with a clear mind, everything can happen within 12 hours after his arrival in Zurich.A candidate first meets with a Dignitas doctor, then goes to a Zurich apartment that belongs to the association. There, he takes the dose that will end his days, prescribed by the doctor and prepared by a volunteer nurse who works for the association. The candidate waits quietly for the end, in the presence of two witnesses.
