“Please help me die”: applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel

Chung-En Yu; Jun Wen; Edmund Goh; Joshua Aston

doi:10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923

“Please help me die”: applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel

Chung-En Yu
, Jun Wen
, Edmund Goh^*
, Joshua Aston

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate/opinion › Research › peer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

At the age of 104, renowned Australian scientist Professor David Goodall travelled to Switzerland in 2018 to commit physician-assisted suicide (PAS). His last words were “My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And I’m very happy to end it” (Blouin, Citation2018). In fact, Dr. Goodall is among 611 people from 31 countries who have travelled to Switzerland to engage in PAS (Wilson, Citation2014). The tourism literature refers to this phenomenon as suicide travel: individuals visit countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg to die legally, thus circumventing restrictions prohibiting death by suicide in their home country (Mondal & Bhowmik, Citation2018).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	450-453
Number of pages	5
Journal	Anatolia
Volume	30
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923
Publication status	Published - 15 Jul 2019
Externally published	Yes

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923

Cite this

@article{ed7ae1fef9cf41c49b25d7f7a6e1c9f3,

title = "“Please help me die”: applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel",

abstract = "At the age of 104, renowned Australian scientist Professor David Goodall travelled to Switzerland in 2018 to commit physician-assisted suicide (PAS). His last words were “My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And I{\textquoteright}m very happy to end it” (Blouin, Citation2018). In fact, Dr. Goodall is among 611 people from 31 countries who have travelled to Switzerland to engage in PAS (Wilson, Citation2014). The tourism literature refers to this phenomenon as suicide travel: individuals visit countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg to die legally, thus circumventing restrictions prohibiting death by suicide in their home country (Mondal \& Bhowmik, Citation2018).",

author = "Chung-En Yu and Jun Wen and Edmund Goh and Joshua Aston",

note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to express their gratitude to Professor Eva Brucker from Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria, for her valuable feedback and directions on this paper.",

year = "2019",

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doi = "10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923",

language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - “Please help me die”: applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel

AU - Yu, Chung-En

AU - Wen, Jun

AU - Goh, Edmund

AU - Aston, Joshua

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to express their gratitude to Professor Eva Brucker from Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria, for her valuable feedback and directions on this paper.

PY - 2019/7/15

Y1 - 2019/7/15

N2 - At the age of 104, renowned Australian scientist Professor David Goodall travelled to Switzerland in 2018 to commit physician-assisted suicide (PAS). His last words were “My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And I’m very happy to end it” (Blouin, Citation2018). In fact, Dr. Goodall is among 611 people from 31 countries who have travelled to Switzerland to engage in PAS (Wilson, Citation2014). The tourism literature refers to this phenomenon as suicide travel: individuals visit countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg to die legally, thus circumventing restrictions prohibiting death by suicide in their home country (Mondal & Bhowmik, Citation2018).

AB - At the age of 104, renowned Australian scientist Professor David Goodall travelled to Switzerland in 2018 to commit physician-assisted suicide (PAS). His last words were “My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And I’m very happy to end it” (Blouin, Citation2018). In fact, Dr. Goodall is among 611 people from 31 countries who have travelled to Switzerland to engage in PAS (Wilson, Citation2014). The tourism literature refers to this phenomenon as suicide travel: individuals visit countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg to die legally, thus circumventing restrictions prohibiting death by suicide in their home country (Mondal & Bhowmik, Citation2018).

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85069041143

U2 - 10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923

DO - 10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923

M3 - Comment/debate/opinion

SN - 1303-2917

VL - 30

SP - 450

EP - 453

JO - Anatolia

JF - Anatolia

IS - 3

ER -

“Please help me die”: applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel

Abstract

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