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

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.