The Morality of Suicide Tourism

This chapter addresses the morality of suicide tourism. There are three general arguments in support of suicide tourism: the argument based on the right to die; the argument based on free movement; and the argument based on humanitarian aid. Suicide tourism provides individuals with freedom and choice in exercising their right to die, which should receive greater weight than is the case under its current moral and legal standing. This chapter looks at how these advantages correspond to peoples' right to free movement which is more secured and valued in a globalized world and can also be supported by a revised—and more courageous—interpretation of the moral duty to provide humanitarian aid to citizens of less permissive states. It concludes that while the justifications for suicide tourism are powerfully convincing, those against it suffer from theoretical problems and, in some cases, cannot necessarily be supported by empirical evidence.