An 85-year-old Italian woman paid $14,000 to a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland so they could help her commit suicide, the New York Daily News reported.
Based on reports the Daily News collected from Italian news outlets, the woman, Oriella Cazzanello, did not want to live anymore because she was losing her good looks due to old age.
Cazzanello was "weighed down by ageing and the inevitable loss of the looks of which she was proud," the Daily News reported.
Cazzanello disappeared from her home in Arzignano at the end of January, the Italian site ANSA reported. The woman's family was under the impression that she traveled to a spa, the site said, according to the Daily News. They eventually alerted the police that she was missing, the Corriere del Vento reported.
But Cazzanello, who was in good health, really went to the clinic in Basel where she paid to be injected with a lethal substance, the Daily News reported.
Cazzanello was reportedly "sad about losing her looks," according to the Daily News.
The woman's family did not find out about her death until this week. The family's lawyer received the woman's death certificate along with her ashes in the mail from the Swiss clinic. The lawyer then told Cazzanello's family, the Daily News reported.
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, yet it is illegal in the United States. Euthanasia is also legal in Switzerland even if the person is not terminally ill.
Euthanasia, or the right-to-die, has stirred controversy all over the world, including the Netherlands. According to The New York Times, several polls revealed the Dutch think assisted suicide should be an option for those are suffering and want it.
One organization, Right to Die-NL, drew international attention in March 2012 when it announced plans to develop mobile assisted suicide teams to help those in need die at home, The Times reported.
Ever year about 2 percent of the people who die in the Netherlands are euthanized, The Times reported.
