Swiss Worry About Their High Suicide Rates

The Swiss suicide rate is apparently quite high and a matter of great concern. The Swiss have vowed to fight it, but they have a problem: Opposing “suicide” while legally permitting assisted suicide sends a decidedly mixed message that would seem to make prevention advocacy less effective. Of course the Swiss don’t see it that way: They blame the ready availability of guns because their ubiquitous use in self killing.

But its the end that is the societal problem, not the means. Moreover, how do you tell suffering, suicidal people that some suicides are fine and dandy—if you have a physical or mental illness or disability—and others aren’t? And get this from the Reuters story:

The Swiss suicide rate stands at 19.1 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants, a 2005 study by the country’s Federal Health Office said, well above the World Health Organization’s global average of 14.5 and of 14.1 in the European Union. That figure may be inflated by assisted suicides— about 10 percent of suicides are through the suicide-assistance groups for which the country has built up some fame.

Good grief: Assisted suicide is suicide. Including the data from those deaths does not inflate the suicide rate, it accurately reports it. (In Oregon, assisted suicides aren’t “suicide” and so that state actually undereports its suicide statistics.)

Reuters’ reporting is further proof that we have entered the world of 1984 Newspeak: If you use a gun it’s suicide. If you use an overdose of drugs supplied by an assisted suicide group it’s not suicide? Good grief.

HT: Alex Schadenberg