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"
Edward Downes Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Gruppen" in 1967, and conducted the Proms premieres of "Die Jakobsleiter" in 1968, "Boris Godunov" in 1971 and "The Fiery Angel" in 1991, as well as public premieres of George Lloyd's Symphony No. 6 and works by Roger Smalley, Elizabeth Maconchy and Jonathan Elias. Downes was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1986 New Year Honours, and was knighted in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours. Although not terminally ill, Downes had been coping with increasing deafness and near total blindness for many years. He had become almost totally dependent on his wife