Assisted suicide was legalised twenty years ago in the Netherlands. To qualify, patients must have been experiencing insufferable pain with no likelihood of improvement. 

Deaths through euthanasia rose from 4.5% to 5.1% of all recorded deaths last year. This indicates an increase of around 10% a year. Cancer patients generally request the procedure, but last year 288 people living with dementia were helped to die, a rise of 34% from 2021.

In addition, 379 older adults suffering from many diseases with no hope of recovery died using this method – a rise of 23% from 2021. Of the deceased, 58 were couples who chose to die together. In 115 cases, people with severe psychiatric illness were euthanised, the same number as in 2021.

The Anscombe Bioethics Centre conducted a peer-reviewed study on suicides, euthanasia and assisted suicide from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland spanning from 1990 to 2016. According to the findings, countries that legalise euthanasia or assisted suicide can expect to see an increase in overall suicide rates. According to the study, women are “placed most at risk of avoidable premature death” by euthanasia or assisted suicide.

The study’s lead writer, Professor David Albert Jones, says, “It will not save lives. It will not help prevent suicide. Legalising what is euphemistically called ‘assisted dying’ will endanger the lives of older people living with serious illnesses. We must say very clearly to all people, irrespective of age, disability or illness, that they should not be made to feel that they are a burden to the community.”

Opponents of euthanasia in the UK are worried that England, Scotland, Jersey and Ireland will be next to legalise assisted suicide. They also refer to Canada, where they consider allowing children and adults with mental illness to be part of the scheme. 

Source: https://www.christiantoday.com/