dying in suicide clinics

Couples in love - anywhere all across the globe swear to live and die together, for each other, but how many actually die with their partner... rarely any....!!

But here is this British couple Edward Downes and his wife Joan, after completing 54 years of partnership, recently ended their lives in an assisted Suicide Clinic in Zurich (Switzerland).

Sir Edward Downes - a celebrated Opera Conductor - was 85 and his wife Joan was 74. Sir Donwes - who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 - had become almost blind and also deaf. Wife Joan - who used to be a dancer, choreographer and television producer and assisted her partner in his work - was diagnosed Cancer, according to reports in British newspaper.

``They decided to end their lives together instead of cointinuing to struggle with serious health problems which become an integral part of old age'', said the Downes children.

This small news item printed in one obscure corner of a newspaper, caught my eye and forced me to think of Euthanasia, which had raked huge controvesies some time back. Of course, the news neither sizzled enough and was also not juicy enough to get the scribes salivating for it and therefore it did not find any place in any of the editorials. Majority of the newspapers even overlooked the news.

Nevertheless, it made me think all over again about this death by choice, which I feel is the most vital decision of life. It sounds paradoxical - but its true. Every Human being at some point of time or the other always thinks of his/her death. Some are scared of death and some want to fulfil their series of wishes before they die. But death is important and inevitable for every living being.

Just sit back and think, if there is illness we wish to die, if a loved one leaves the world, we pray that we too should die. If there is financial crisis we talk of ending our lives or if someone has humiliated and played with our dignity, we want to die.

The newspaper in India are full of reports where a woman has jumped off the train with her two children because she could not feed them, or a man poisoned his wife, children and himself as he could not work due to his illness, or some educated man shot himself because he could not pay back the loan he had taken from the bank or a girl jumps off the fourth floor of a shopping mall as her boyfriend had ruined her life, or a young boy or a girl has jumped into the river because he/she could not get marks desired by his/her parents.

There are hundreds of simple reasons with each person for which he/she wants to end his/her life - however ridiculous these reasons might appear to others. But there are not so simple means to end one's life. Jumping in front of the train or into the river, or jumping off the moving train are crude ways to commit suicide, which in my view do not give a dignified death to a human. In such environment, if we too have a dignified and peaceful way to end life, wouldn't it be good?

As far as judicious use of suicide clinics is concerned - every facility or law has two ways to it - it can be used or abused. It is duty of the law enforcers to ensure that it is not abused. The fear of abuse has made Euthanasia (a medical practice) see maxium number of protestors. This shows that since we fail to enforce law judiciously, and we see the chances of abuse and misuse of a particular law are high and for which strict enforcement is a pre-requisite - we surrender and start opposing it.

PS: Some interesting facts about Suicide Clinics run by group of Dignitas (Source:Wikipedia)

Dignitas was founded in 1998 by Ludwig Minelli, a Swiss lawyer. In one of her interviews in March 2008, she had stated that Dignitas assisted 840 people, of which 60 per cent were Germans.

As of October 2008, approximately 100 British citizens had travelled to Switzerland from the UK to die at one of Dignitas' rented apartments in Zurich.

EXIT is another Swiss organization providing assisted suicides. In 2008, it had 50,000 members. However, EXIT strictly denies suicide assistance for people from abroad

The BBC has produced a film titled `A Short Stay' in Switzerland. The flm tells the story of Dr Anne Turner, who made the journey to the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic, on 24 January 2006 she ended her life, the day before her 67th birthday. The film was shown on BBC1 on January 25, 2009.