Quote of the Week - Giorgio Ghiringhelli

Giorgio Ghiringhelli

Photo: Samuel Golay

“Those who want to integrate are welcome irrespective of their religion. But those who rebuff our values and aim to build a parallel society based on religious laws, and want to place it over our society, are not welcome.”--Giorgio Ghiringhelli

In light of Islamic terrorism around the world, Switzerland is following the lead of Bavaria, France, Hungary and Italy, in cracking down on Islamic symbols and clandestine mosques. Even the generally open-minded Swiss are banning the “burqa” in public.

Voters in a predominantly Italian area of Switzerland voted Sunday, November 29, 2015 to ban full-face veils. According to the Agence France-Presse the decision has outraged the country’s Muslim community and Amnesty International,

The town of Ticino approved a referendum to ban burqas, after the Swiss parliament decided a ban would not “violate the country’s federal law.”

Read more here and here.

Assisted Suicide in Switzerland: Women Most Vulnerable

An extensive survey of assisted suicide in Switzerland between 2003 and 2008 has found that the most vulnerable people are women, people who live alone or people who are divorced. People who ask for assisted suicide tend to be wealthier and better educated.

The results have been published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The authors, from the University of Bern, conclude that disadvantaged sectors of the Swiss population are not more vulnerable to assisted suicide, because relatively fewer low-income people take advantage of it. Their principal recommendation is that the government should require better statistics.

However, other interesting findings also emerge.

* Fewer people with a religious affiliation, especially to the Catholic Church, seek assisted suicide. “The association with religion may reflect greater social integration among the religious as well as social norms and dogma,” they say.

* The existence of right-to-die associations might possibly be increasing demand for suicide. Although one-third of doctors said that they had been confronted with a request for suicide, only 6% of then actually participated without the involvement of a right-to-die association.

* The right-to-die associations are not following the law, but the authorities do not seem to be reacting. “In a substantial minority of death certificates (16%), no underlying cause of death was recorded, despite the fact that only those who suffer from an incurable illness, intolerable suffering or a severe disability are eligible for assistance by the associations.”

* The authors believe that their data may disprove the danger of a “slippery slope” because lower socio-economic groups are less vulnerable than the wealthier and better educated. However, if the time frame encompasses the 1918 law on assisted suicide, the “slippery slope” seems more plausible.

Nowadays, Swiss assisted suicide is “marketed” as a remedy for an unendurable disability and an alternative to the pain of terminal illness. However, that is not why the legislators of 1918 proposed it and the legislators of 1937 approved it. They removed penalties for assisting a suicide if the motivation were altruistic. But, surprisingly for our generation, health was not a consideration. Legalised assisted suicide was for people suffering the pain of wounded honour or disappointed love.

But in 1982 two non-profit associations, one for French speakers, Exit Suisse Romande, and one for German speakers, Exit Deutsche Schweiz, were formed to help their members die. These were followed by EX International in 1996, which helps foreigners, and Dignitas in 1998, which helps both Swiss and foreigners. What began as a policy in the spirit of The Sorrows of Young Werther ended up as industrial death.

Source: BioEdge

Related reading: Trauma of Assisted Suicide Witnesses; Suicide Not a "Right" in Switzerland

Trauma of Assisted Suicide Witnesses

Relatives and friends of a person who commits assisted suicide have a high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, according to a Swiss study in the latest issue of European Psychiatry. About 20% of respondents experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD and 16% had symptoms of depression after about 19 months after the death.

"Witnessing the unnatural death of a significant person thus seems to have a strong impact on the bereaved, which may lead to severe mental health problems at 14 to 24 months post-loss. Our findings suggest that relatives and family members who witness assisted suicide need to be better informed about and prepared for its possible consequences it for their mental health. Additionally, right-to-die organizations should offer them professional help focused on trauma-related symptoms."

The study was based on data on 146 people who died with the help of the right-to-die organisation Exit Deutsche Schweiz between October 2005 and September 2006. Of this group, 21 had died with no family members or friends as witness. ~World Radio Switzerland, Oct 4

Massachusetts Doctors Debate Assisted Suicide

On election day in November, Massachusetts will also vote on a referendum on assisted suicide - or, as its supporters call it, "assisted dying." On July 31 Boston Globe featured parallel statements by a leading advocate of the measure and a leading foe.

Marcia Angell is a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School. She argues that because the proposed bill, which is "virtually identical" to Oregon's Death with Dignity law, has already been found roadworthy there, Massachusetts voters should have no hesitation in supporting it.

Although the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) staunchly opposes assisted suicide, Dr Angell believes conventional arguments, like "physicians are only healers", "physicians should never participate in taking life", and "patients who request assisted dying may be suffering from treatable depression", are wrong. She acknowledges that palliative care can relieve pain in most cases, but, she says, existential suffering can be even worse for patients:

"They know that their condition will grow worse day after day until their deaths, that their course is inexorably downhill, and they find it meaningless to soldier on. Why should anyone -- the state, the medical profession, or anyone else -- presume to tell someone else how much suffering they must endure while dying? Doctors should stand with their patients, not against them."

Barbara A.Rockett, a physician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and a former president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, argues that "To substitute physician-assisted suicide for care represents an abandonment of the patient by the physician."

Rockett reminds readers that, by and large, doctors do not support assisted suicide. In Massachusetts, more than 75% of member of the MMS oppose it. And this is true at a national level as well. At a meeting in 2003, the AMA went on record to say, "Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would impose serious societal risks." She concludes:

"Physician-assisted suicide has been falsely advertised as death with dignity. Believe me, there is nothing dignified about suicide. I ask the voters of this Commonwealth, as they enter the voting booth, to vote for dignity for life and not for death. Please vote no on physician-assisted suicide."

What is at stake? If Massachusetts voters approve the referendum, other New England states could follow suit. The Massachusetts Medical Society is the oldest of its kind in the United States and the publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine, the nation's leading medical journal.

Related reading:  Oregon Physician Assisted Suicide Stats Released; Utilitarian Euthanasia; Suicide Not a Right in Switzerland; Bulgaria Rejects Assisted Suicide; France Says No to Assisted Suicide; The Dutch Crazy About Euthanasia; Italians Debate End of Life Options

Hopes Dim for Swiss Captive in Yemen

ADEN, March 29: A bid to release a Swiss woman kidnapped in Yemen has suffered a blow after her abductors made excessive demands, including for Osama bin Laden’s widows to be freed, a tribal chief said on Thursday.

Al Qaeda militants abducted the woman on March 14 from her home in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, where she had been teaching at a foreign language institute.

She was taken to far eastern Shabwa province.

Tribal chief Ali Abdullah Zibari said, however, that mediation efforts had so far failed because of excessive demands placed by her captors, including the release of Bin Laden’s widows held in Pakistan.

Mr Zibari said the Islamists also demanded the release of several women held in Iraq and Saudi Arabia in return for the Swiss captive.

“Their initial demands for the release of (former Al Qaeda chief) Osama bin Laden’s wives held in Pakistan were rejected by Yemeni officials last week,” Mr Zibari told AFP, adding the group then placed new conditions for the Swiss woman’s return.

“Now they’re demanding the release of 100 Al Qaeda-affiliated militants from Yemeni jails and 50 million euros (66 million dollars)… at which point the mediation efforts failed because of the prohibitive demands,” he said.

Mr Zibari played a crucial role in the release last November of three French aid workers kidnapped by Al Qaeda and held for five months.

Shabwa province is a stronghold of Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, the Partisans of Sharia, which has expanded its influence in recent months, taking advantage of the political turmoil that has swept the country and forced the resignation of veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

From here.



The Swiss woman was seized from her home by "men in military uniform" and is reported to be in good healt and "safe."  Her name has not been released.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-20/167340-swiss-woman-seized-in-yemen-safe-tribal-chief.ashx#ixzz1qcAdxgdZ
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman warns that Iran and al Qaeda are exploiting political uncertainty in Yemen.

Yemeni policemen rescued 21 Ethiopians being held hostage in Hajjah. The Ethiopians were tortured by their captors, who demanded that their relatives in Saudi Arabia send ransom money. Three of the captors were arrested when Yemeni police stormed the house in which they were staying