Euthanasia Tourism As Assisted Suicide Travel
by: Vivi Diah Respatie
Euthanasia is complicated thing to be discussed. It is because the topic concerns human rights which refer to abstract things and liberty still has no boundaries. Historically, the word euthanasia means “good death”, such as death without torment, without affliction. In the 20th century, during the Third Reich, the word acquired a negative meaning when it was inappropriately utilized in Nazi approaches pointed toward killing lives that were viewed as not qualified to exist . In recent decade definition, euthanasia can be defined as work or abstention of methodology which permits speeding up or instigating the death of hopelessly sick patients, to liberate them from the super experience that tortures them . In other discussions, people are really arguing about euthanasia tourism which is developing now.
Suicide practices in the travel industry have been the intense topic discussion in scholastic and industry circles; when the travel industry context is normally used to be happy experience instead of an desire to end someone’s life. There are lot of the definitions of euthanasia tourism. According to Huxtable, suicide tourism is like a travel by a suicidal person from one jurisdiction to another, in which she or he will be helped in doing suicide by some other persons. In short, suicide tourism is event which helps a person to commit suicide with help from others. In another discussion, people argued and defined the suicide tourism as medical treatment, helped a person with suicidal thoughts would qualify as a specialty section of clinical the travel industry and a sub-part of global the travel industry. This phenomenon has gained more attention since the legality of this action had been approved in some countries, especially in Belgium. Based on the data, there's a notable increase in the number of patients travelling to Belgium, where “mercy killings” have been legal since 2002; and French applicants are on the top list. Before Belgium became the so-called euthanasia favorite destination, that term belonged to Switzerland. Helping people to commit suicide has been allowed since 1942 and eight right-to-die clinics operate there.
None of the international human rights instruments addresses euthanasia directly. But, it does not mean that euthanasia will be incompatible with international human rights law. According to Article 1 Human Rights Committee, General Comment 12, all peoples have the right of self-determination and it is important because its realization is an essential condition for the effective guarantee and observance of individual human rights and for the promotion and strengthening of those rights. The people who agree with euthanasia, often use the argument of the principle of human self-determination which talked that human self-determination is not from the state and that the state has no rights to interfere its citizen private lives.
In conclusion, euthanasia tourism is still being chaotic topic to be debated. Some people may think that this is weird because people really do travel to be dead, but it is really happening now in some countries, even those countrize legalize the action when international human rights law does not adresses the euthanasia tourism directly. In my point of view, this suicide tourism is broad and multifaceted topic. We should consider how the context is; we should review the historical, religious, socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the countries which take the legality of this assisted suicide. Moreover, the discussion raises awareness regarding palliative care services.
References
Journal Article
Castro, M. P. R., et. al. (2016). Eutanásia e suicídio assistido em países ocidentais: Revisão sistemática. Revista Bioética, 24(2), 355–367. doi:https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-80422016242136
Huxtable, R. (2009). The suicide tourist trap: Compromise across boundaries. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 6(3), 327–336. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-009-9170-5
Yu, C.-E., Wen, J., & Meng, F. (2020). Defining physician-assisted suicide tourism and travel. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 44(4), 694–703. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348019899437
Legal Bill
Human Rights Committee, General Comment 12, Article 1.
Website
Rodriguez, C. (2019, March 17). Euthanasia tourism: Is the E.U. encouraging its growth? Retrieved September 11, 2021 from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2019/03/17/euthanasia-tourism-is-the-e-u-encouraging-its-growth/?sh=29541352229b
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