The head of a Swiss assisted-dying group has died after trying to climb Japan’s Mount Fuji, underscoring renewed safety concerns on the country’s highest peak. Police say the 58-year-old hiker lost consciousness during the ascent and was pronounced dead at a hospital, reports CBS News. Swiss euthanasia organization Exit identified the man as its managing director, Bernhard Sutter, and said he suffered a medical emergency while on a family trip.
Sutter was said to have been with his son when he collapsed, per the Japan Times. His death is the second on Fuji since the official climbing season opened on July 1. Authorities the same day rescued 99-year-old Japanese climber Tome Sagawa, a woman who’d been injured and spent the night in a mountain hut. With the mountain plagued by overcrowding and underprepared tourists, local officials have tightened trail caps and introduced climbing fees and are urging hikers not to push beyond their limits. Streamline has more on Sutter’s legacy in the right-to-die sphere.
AloJapan.com