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Switzerland

Global Right-To-Die Battle Descends On Zurich

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).

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Ideas

A Brazilian Plea For Science, Religious Freedom And The Right To Samba As You Wish

An evangelic group has threatened to take legal action against a samba school because of its mix of religious iconography at the 2023 Carnival festivities. A Brazilian secular institute has a response.

Photo of Rio's carnival 2015

Rio carnival in full swing

Daniel Gontijo E Pirula

-OpEd-

SÃO PAULO — To celebrate religious diversity at 2023 carnival, the samba school Gaviões da Fiel in São Paolo combined Christian symbols with imagery from African religions — for example, Christ with Oxalá (a deity from Candomblé, an African diasporic religion).

Gaviões received a disclaimer note from the country's conservative Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE). In these politicians’ view, "one cannot compare Christ and Oxalá … under no circumstances", and there would only be one god, one Son, and one Holy Spirit.

Having interpreted this artistic syncretism as an immoral, vile act, the FPE is now threatening to take legal action against the samba school.

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