When we meet to some one near and dear, we wish, “May God bless you a long life”. But it is not at “Dignitas”, where the fellow members wish for a peaceful death. It may sound strange, but it is. In a recently published media report, it was revealed that at least 800 British nationals who were suffering from some incurable diseases had applied for death assistance at the controversial Swiss clinic “Dignitas”. According to “The Observer”, about 800 British citizens have taken the membership there for euthanasia. Moreover, there are 34 such people who think that their diseases are no way curable, so they plan to travel Zurich, where they will be provided lethal overdoses by doctors at Dignitas for peaceful death. According to media reports these 34 people (both men and women) have got the green signal from Dignitas for euthanasia. Dignitas has already got all the required documents regarding their painful miserable bed- ridden life and the authorities of the organization are now assured that all these 34 people are mentally matured and determined to follow their own wish.  Forty six years old British lady named Debby Prudy who suffered from multiple Sclerosis was willing to go the British Supreme Court in order to know whether the court would permit her husband to help her in her suicidal tourism to the Zurich. According to the data collected at Dignitas, since the year 2003, almost seventy two British nationals have committed suicide with the help of Dignitas.

A brief introduction to Dignitas- Founded in 1998 by a Swiss lawyer Ludwig Minnelli, it is a Swiss assisted euthanasia group that after being assured that someone consulting them is suffering from any incurable disease and want to end his/her miserable and painful life at his own wish and without any coercion provides euthanasia. According to Ludwig, their group has its own rules, regulations that are according to Swiss law that vehemently states that a person, who assists someone to commit suicide, can only be prosecuted if the law finds him motivated by self interest. According to him, Dignitas works as an entirely neutral party carefully examining the condition of its members to ensure a number of facts-

The person’s disease is no way curable and for him death is better than life.

The person has met with several Dignitas personals and with an independent doctor who have given their approval for the genuineness of the case after examining the evidences produced by the patient. For the purpose the person has to meet the doctor on two separate occasions with a time gap.

Some legal proofs such as signed affidavit, and the document counter signed by some independent witnesses are also needed. In case of a person’s disability(physically unable) to sign the documents, a clear video film of the person is produced in which he/she is required to confirm his/her identity and his/her wish to die. This is done to ensure that it is the person’s own wish to die and no way because of any external pressure. In addition, Dignitas personals ask the person for several times and remind them that taking the lethal overdose will kill him surely, so whether she/he want to proceed or not. The final procedure takes place only after the confirmation that the person is determined and in no way want to reconsider.

According to Ludwig, till March 2008, they had assisted as much as 860 people, out of which 60 percent were German nationals. According to him Dignitas is a non-profit organization and charges only for the cost of preparations done for the assistance. They charge extra money only in case they are requested to takeover the family duties such as funeral possession after the death.

Hey, very strange! Even the death is not free of cost on this planet.

Although Europe has usually been credited with it’s origin it actually appears to have started in either the region of the Gobi desert or the land of Egypt and then spread from there to the western world. Changes in lifestyle around the middle ages have been blamed for the virus reaching pandemic levels as trade routes allowed easy access for the disease carrying rats and highly populated areas with very poor sanitary conditions provided an ideal breeding ground for the plague to reach full ferocity. Never before did any illness or malady provoke so much fear and sheer terror, destroy economies and create social upheaval as this one.

It would appear mysteriously with no obvious causes and no known cure or treatment. Once diagnosed, people would often be locked into their houses to die rather than risk having them free to spread it further. It is now known that the disease was carried through rodents and fleas. The flea would bite and suck the infected blood from the rat then bite and regurgitate the blood into a human body thus infecting humans who could then spread it very rapidly to each other. Symptoms would include fever and painful swellings of the lymph glands which were called buboes (thus the name Bubonic Plague), it also caused red spots on the skin which would later turn black. Panic would abound when the plague came to town, fathers would abandon sick sons, lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying, care of the sick fell to nuns and friars who then died of the disease themselves, bodies lay everywhere. It killed people with amazing speed, the Italian writer Boccaccio wrote of the victims:”ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise”.

Although the plague is considered a disease of the Middle Ages outbreaks are still reported worldwide, the most recent to my knowledge in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease can now be treated with antibiotics although the most virulent form Pneumonic plague will still kill if not treated within 24 hours.