Sneaking off to Switzerland

: Exploring experiences of seeking or providing the medical documentation required for an assisted dying application

Abstract

Within the United Kingdom, assisted dying is a hotly contested (and often divisive) topic of contemporary political debate. Despite the level of attention assisted dying receives and considering the consequences for all involved, very little is known about the experiences of those seeking assisted deaths abroad in Switzerland within the regulatory status quo.

As part of Switzerland's assisted dying application process, prospective applicants must provide medical documentation to comply with Swiss criminal law. General practitioners have reported legal fears and uncertainty about providing this documentation, while applicants report inconsistent reactions from healthcare professionals after disclosing their reasons for seeking documentation.

My thesis explores 24 people's experiences of seeking or providing the required medical documentation for an assisted dying application. To help mitigate regulatory fears (for potential participants and myself as the researcher), I developed a novel recruitment protocol that offered anonymity during recruitment.

My conceptual framework draws on the growing body of literature that describes assisted dying as a discursive process, paying attention to the asymmetric relations in power between healthcare professionals and patients. I present a critical reflexive thematic analysis that captures the furtive nature of seeking an assisted death abroad and the attempt to retain control over a pervasive sense of risk accompanying the disclosure of the reasons for seeking medical documentation.

Sneaking off to Switzerland describes strategic disclosure of the reasons for seeking documentation and a self-silencing that may contribute to the reinforcement of the social stigma surrounding suicide and risks the marginalization of those holding a wish to hasten death (WTHD) yet further.

Date of Award	1 Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Gene S Feder (Supervisor), Jonathan C S Ives (Supervisor), Alice Malpass (Supervisor) & Havi Hannah Carel (Supervisor)