Word: switzerland
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...maxillofacial surgeon, Jerome Sobel has brought a smile - literally - to hundreds of patients' faces. But the Lausanne physician has a second job that is far more somber: helping terminally ill people end their lives. Sobel is president for French-speaking Switzerland's chapter of EXIT, an assisted-suicide organization that provides a lethal dose of barbiturates to terminally ill patients who want to end their life. (See pictures of suicide in the U.S. Army recruiters' ranks...
...Sobel may soon have less to do in that second job. The Swiss government, concerned that Switzerland is becoming a destination for "suicide tourism," wants to tighten its decades-old assisted-suicide law, considered to be the most liberal of its kind in the world. As it stands, the legislation permits assisted suicide if a physician is convinced that the patient has no chance of recovery, that he or she is mentally and physically capable of making the decision to die and that the patient administers the drug - about 10 grams of sodium pentobarbital mixed with a fruit juice...
...Switzerland's law dates back to 1942. But the government now says it is too lax and that it's sometimes misused - for example, by allowing those who suffer from a chronic or mental illness to die. A Zurich University study released last year found that a number of people with non-fatal illnesses opted for assisted suicide, an abuse the authorities say they are determined to stop. Among the proposed measures, still to be fine-tuned and debated in parliament, is the requirement that two different doctors attest to the candidate's suitability for assisted suicide and confirm...
...Officials are also concerned about the influx of foreigners from nations where assisted suicide is illegal - Britain, France, Germany - who are coming to Switzerland to end their lives. A government advisory body on biomedical ethics estimates that out of approximately 350 to 400 cases of assisted suicide each year, about one-third are from abroad. "We as a country have no interest in being attractive for suicide tourism," Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a news conference on Oct. 28. Not surprisingly, the Catholic Church, the country's largest religious denomination, welcomes the government's move. "Those...
...merger, slated for completion late next year, is simple. BA and Iberia - combined annual revenues: $22 billion - are chasing their rivals' tails. Germany's Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, has picked up smaller carriers from Austria to Switzerland in recent months. Thanks to the 2004 merger of the French and Dutch airlines, Air France-KLM is even further out in front. Troubled Iberia and BA, which both announced ugly losses over the past week, reckon eliminating duplicate services from fleet maintenance to business class lounges will save the airlines $600 million a year. That'll mean "a strong European...