Dignity in Dying, a British movement group, has supported the Swiss voters’ decision to decline talks of banning assisted suicides for non-residents, a report said.

Voters in Zurich were asked to decide if assisted suicides be banned both for Swiss nationals and non-residents and 78 per cent of the people voted against banning the process.

According to Zurich authorities, a total of 278,000 votes were cast out of which more than 80 per cent decided against the ban of assisted suicides while 78 per cent voted against banning it for foreigners.

The polls clearly showed the people were in favor of assisted suicides and a few against it terming it as suicide tourism.

“I believe that decisions about the timing and manner of death belong to the individual as a human right. I believe it is wrong to withhold medical methods of terminating life painlessly and swiftly when an individual has a rational and clear-minded sustained wish to end his or her life,” said Professor A C Grayling, a Dignity in Dying Patron in the organization website.

Chief executive of Dignity in Dying, Sarah Wooten, in a report, said that her organization hopes to see assisted dying made legal in countries like Britain as well.

Care Not Killing, an opposing group, said they were disappointed about such an outcome where people are bent upon supporting such methods though an earlier poll showed two-thirds of the people concerned about suicide tourism. The recent polls have completely reversed the past decision, they said.

“We live in a free society with all the choices that go with it. We choose when to marry, have children, what treatment we should have, where to live, who to consult for advice, in fact how we should live our lives. This should include the opportunity to choose the time we die,” said Simon Weston, another Dignity in Dying Patron in the website.

More than 120 Britons have decided to die at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland till date.

United kingdom