Journey to Switzerland as a state of exception: a ‘homo sacer’ Italian experience

ABSTRACT

In Italy, the topic of assisted suicide (AS) has been gaining increasing interest in recent years through a number of ‘travel to Switzerland’ cases. Italy, together with other European countries where this practice is not legalised, is involved in the ‘Swiss effect’, that is, ‘suicide tourism’ of ill people. This article looks at the experience of a patient who went to Switzerland for AS (‘Andrea’), accompanied by a photojournalist (‘Giordano’) who discovered that he/she was a healthy person. Giordano was interviewed following the methodology of the interpretative phenomenological analysis, and his answers underwent qualitative analyses that highlighted four main themes illustrating how the experience was deeply traumatic: Giordano’s reasons for addressing AS and his accompanying Andrea; The family shock; Human free will and God’s willingness; Giordano’s emotions and representation of death. On the basis of these results, some biopolitical aspects are discussed in the space of ‘homo sacer’, ‘state of exception’ and ‘social immunisation’. Particular attention is given to the issue of suicide prevention and to its total medicalisation through the palliative care approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicide prevention
• assisted suicide
• homo sacer
• state of exception
• immunisation
• palliative care

Acknowledgments

Diego De Leo, Erika Iacona, Giulia Di Bisceglia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ines Testoni

Ines Testoni is professor of Psychology of End of Life, Palliative care, Loss and Death relationships and director of the Master in Death Studies & The End of Life (University of Padova, Italy). Her research interests and activities are especially focused on the theme of death, in all its facets and variables, reconciling a psychological and social point of view with a philosophical one, in order to maintain a broader perspective on the matter. Recognized among the 100 most important female scientists in Italy, for her studies in this field, she is the author of one hundred and thirty impacted articles and about twenty volumes.

Leonardo Arnau

Leonardo Arnau PhD is a criminal lawyer and President of the Bar Association of Padua and Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Forensic Foundation of Padua. He has participated, as a lecturer, in over two hundred conferences and has published numerous articles on criminal and constitutional law.