The Washington monthly's Monthly Journalism Award

Washington Monthly, Jan-Feb, 2003

GAUTUM NAIK

"Last Requests: The Grim Mission Of a Swiss Group: Visitors' Suicides" The Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2002

By intertwining profiles of a Swiss euthanasia advocacy group and a terminally ill 66-year-old Frenchwoman, Gautam Naik immerses readers in the ethical and social dilemmas of assisted suicide. The Frenchwoman, stricken with breast cancer that has spread to her bones and lungs, has traveled to Switzerland to die, and spends her last morning in a seedy Zurich cafe drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and cutting up her credit card. She has come to Zurich courtesy of Dignitas, a four-year-old euthanasia group that is testing Switzerland's policy of permitting assisted suicide by offering services to non-citizens. Local officials worry that the group's acceptance of such clients as Alzheimer's victims and schizophrenics, denied permission in their own countries, will earn Zurich an unwanted reputation as "the city to die in." Dignitas' founder, a former journalist who wrote about human rights abuses, insists he must help those in need. For her part, the Frenchwoman hopes her testimony will increase support for assisted suicide in her native country, and, in her final hour, admits the difficulty in dying so far from home.

THE MONTHLY JOURNALISM AWARD is presented each month to one or more newspaper, magazine, radio, or television stories (or series of stories) that demonstrate a commitment to the public interest. We are particularly interested in reporting that explains the successes and failures of government agencies at all levels and of other institutions such as the media, corporations, unions, and foundations that contribute to the existence or solution of public problems. Please send nominations (including a copy of the article or broadcast text) to The Washington Monthly Journalism Award, 733 15th Street, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005. Or e-mail us at editors@washingtonmonthly.com. Nominations for stories run in December 2002 are due January 5, 2003.