Voters in Zurich, Switzerland, have rejected proposed bans on assisted suicide and "suicide tourism", early projections suggest. The projections showed voters had heavily turned down both initiatives, Swiss news agency SDA reported.
About 200 people commit assisted suicide each year in Zurich, including many foreign visitors. It has been legal in Switzerland since 1941 if performed by a non-physician with no vested interest in the death.
Conservative political parties had backed a proposal to impose a residency requirement of at least one year in the Zurich area in order to qualify for assisted suicide.
While opinion polls indicated that most Swiss were in favour of assisted suicide, they also suggested that many are against what has become known as suicide tourism.
Residents are uneasy that so many foreign citizens are coming to die in Switzerland because the practice remains illegal in their own countries.
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