Suicide tourism have repeatedly criticized suicide assistance for foreigners, branding it "suicide tourism" ("Sterbetourismus" in German). In 2007, Dignitas launched an effort to gain legal permission for healthy foreigners, including married couples committed to suicide pacts, to end their lives in Switzerland. In July 2009, British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan died together at a suicide clinic outside Zürich "under circumstances of their own choosing." Sir Edward was not terminally ill, but his wife was diagnosed with rapidly developing cancer. In March 2010, the PBS Frontline TV program in the United States showed a documentary called "The Suicide Tourist"
Joan Vaux (lady-in-waiting) as a child. She met the Dutch philosopher and humanist Erasmus when he paid a visit to the royal children. Erasmus had been so favourably impressed by his conversations with Joan, that years later in 1519, he referred to Joan in a letter to her son, Henry, as "the noble lady your mother", wishing her happiness and prosperity. She was summoned to wait upon Queen Elizabeth for the arrival of Catherine of Aragon in 1501. On one occasion, shortly before the Infanta's marriage to Prince Arthur, Joan is recorded to have partnered the Prince, in a dignified Spanish dance, performed