TAGES-ANZEIGER (Switzerland)
ZURICH – Sparks are set to fly as groups on both sides of the right-to-die debate prepare to descend on Zurich – with just one street to divide them.
The Swiss city is known throughout the world as being something of a mecca for the practice of assisted suicide and what's been dubbed, "assisted suicide tourism." It’s also the location of a biennial conference being planned by the World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies (WFRTDS), Tages-Anzeiger reports.
The approximately 700 people expected to attend the event will have a chance to hear speeches from a who’s who of international right-to-die activists, including Great Britain’s Debbie Purdy and George Felos, the lawyer in the Terry Schiavo case in the U.S. state of Florida. Controversial activists like the German Roger Kusch, or Australian doctor Philip Nitschke who publishes an assisted suicide manual called The Peaceful Pill, will also be speaking.
They may also get an earful from right-to-die opponents, who are planning a competing event that’s set to take place directly across the street. “We want to confront those attending the congress with the other side of the story, and to explore if assisted suicide really guarantees greater human dignity,” said Christoph Keel, secretary of the Catholic-dominated Human Life International Schweiz (HLI-Schweiz).
Read the original article in full in German
