Veteran sports commentator Fu Da-ren (傅達仁) traveled to Switzerland late last month and posted the scheduled date for his death on his Facebook page. It was not the first time he had gone to Switzerland: He had been there in November last year, but had returned to Taiwan.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met him after his return, listening to his philosophy of death and his views on the right to die. He also mentioned that he had spent NT$3 million (US$99,993) to pay for his and his family’s two visits to Switzerland. (Editor’s note: Fu Da-ren died by assisted suicide on June 7.)
Australian botanist and ecologist David Goodall, aged 104, with the assistance of Exit International, an organization which advocates the right to die, had also gone to Switzerland in search of euthanasia.
During his last interview, Goodall said: “I’ve had a good life” and “I don’t fear death.”
He chose the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 to be the bedside music as he died last month.
Goodall expressed his gratitude to the Swiss and regrets at having to leave Australia, his home country, for Switzerland, the only nation that offers assisted dying services to foreigners.
Most people traveling to Switzerland for assisted dying come from Germany, France and the UK, with each person paying NT$600,000 on average.
Understanding the problem, the Swiss humanitarian assisted-dying organization has posed a question: People in every country want to die because they suffer from illness and unbearable pain, so why do these countries not make an effort to legalize euthanasia?
Many advanced nations, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland have legalized euthanasia, while the California End of Life Option Act was passed in 2015 and enacted in 2016 following similar acts in the US states of Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana, making it the greatest region supporting assisted dying.
However, they do not have organizations or groups that accept and help foreigners coordinate this complicated procedure.
Clinically, many people lose their quality of life and dignity due to illnesses that cannot be treated despite advances in medical science. They often do not get a good and peaceful death.
Many physicians, including in Taiwan, know how to offer patients sufficient doses — and even overdoses — of sedatives, tranquilizers and painkillers, but the practice remains secret and often it is only the physician’s own close relatives that can benefit from this kind of “welfare.”
As physician-assisted dying is underground and not publicly discussed, receiving a good and peaceful death is a matter of luck and good connections.
A legal right to death will not spark suicidal tendencies; quite the contrary, the existence of legalized euthanasia will help patients face physical suffering more bravely.
We all have a right to die, and a mature civil society should be able to comprehend and overcome the complicated mentality of prejudice and fear.
Euthanasia is highly representative of human rights and freedom, and every person should have the right to choose the time of their death.
Every human being runs the risk of an unendurable life as a result of illness or accidents. When life becomes unbearable, suicide can be a reasonable and legitimate decision.
If life becomes unbearable, the noble human aspiration of freedom seeks liberation through the empathy and sympathy of the like-minded, even though the suicidal may not need such support.
The process of legalizing euthanasia resembles the making of two parallel tire marks on a boundless plain, with one side made of individual freedom and the other of one’s raison d’etre.
The patient’s best interest is the bearing connecting the wheels, and respecting their right to autonomy is the ultimate principle of medical ethics.
Even though no right-to-die bill exists in Taiwan, the turning point is on the horizon thanks to the efforts of Fu and many others. If things proceed smoothly, the public might have the opportunity to vote in a referendum on euthanasia during the local elections in November.
Hopefully, the referendum question: “Do you agree that patients suffering from severe illness and in full possession of their mental faculties, could — following a consensus reached by an evaluation team — be given assisted dying services by a medical team?” would be approved by the public and then forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for formulation into a law to regulate assisted dying.
Hopefully, Taiwan will become the first nation in Asia to legalize physician-assisted dying.
Chiang Sheng is an attending physician at Chiayi Christian Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Division.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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