True Freedom?

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem," wrote Albert Camus, "and that is suicide." It never fails to puzzle society when someone claims to have solved it. On March 31, Britons Robert and Jennifer Stokes flew to Zurich to kill themselves with the help of professionals. The Stokes were in chronic discomfort — Jennifer, 53, suffered from diabetes and Robert, 59, was epileptic — and both reportedly were prone to depression. But neither was terminally ill, according to relatives. In Zurich, the Stokes were greeted by staff members from Dignitas, an assisted-suicide group in Switzerland, where the practice is legal — for patients suffering "intolerable health problems." (In Belgium, by contrast, patients must be terminally ill.) Assuming their experience was like that of their other clients, the Dignitas staff then took the Stokes to see founder Ludwig Minelli, to verify their wish to die. A doctor who had reviewed their records prescribed a toxic dose of barbiturates, and the couple was taken to a bare apartment in Zurich. They likely lay down upon two single beds, ate some Swiss chocolate to help them swallow a bitter anti-vomiting medication, and then drank the barbiturate cocktail. Within minutes, they drifted into a coma, then died. The couple had already arranged for a double coffin.

Since the couple's death, Jennifer Stokes' mother and sister have demanded that Dignitas be shut down. British M.P.s have called for an investigation. "It's a terrible signal, for patients and doctors, and for Switzerland," says Oswald Oelz, chief of internal medicine at Triemli Hospital in Zurich. Minelli scoffs at the outcry. "All this is bullshit," he says. "The bottom line is, we should all have the freedom to end our own lives if we are convinced our suffering is unbearable to us." Minelli declined to comment on the specifics of the Stokes case. In its five years of existence, Dignitas has assisted in the suicides of close to 150 people, including several who reportedly were mentally ill.

Most bioethicists say cases like the Stokes' are foreboding. "With terminal illness, your fate is sealed," says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. "Morally, we're more comfortable with a situation where you don't cause death, but you hasten it. We think that's a bright line." But relying on an individual's opinion that life has become unbearable means depending on a decision that could change. "The wish to die is certainly not enough. I have had many people in my office saying 'Please, let me die.' In many cases, there was a solution," says Thomas Schlaepfer, a psychiatry professor at Bern University Hospital in Switzerland. Legislation to tighten the rules on assisted suicide is wending its way through Swiss parliament, but passage is at least a year off. In the meantime, Zurich authorities may at least try to push groups like Dignitas out of residential areas by categorizing them with sex outlets under zoning laws. "Living here is morbid," says one of Dignitas' neighbors. "We have to witness a constant parade of coffins."