The findings come amid calls in Britain to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults from politicians and celebrities such as Dame Esther Rantzen (pictured) ). : ViacomCBS/Photographer Dave King
Euthanasia deaths in Europe and Canada have risen by almost a quarter in just 12 months, raising fears that legalizing euthanasia in the UK would be a slippery slope leading to more and more people choosing to die .
Once a taboo is broken, rules are often subsequently relaxed further to allow patients with mental health problems, autism and even children to choose death, campaigners warn.
The 23 per cent rate increase is part of the program. trending upward in popularity in three countries since it was legalised, according to a Sunday Telegraph analysis of the latest available data.
The number of deaths in Canada has doubled in the past 5 years.
Deaths have doubled in the past five years in Canada, which legalized euthanasia in 2016, Belgium and the Netherlands, which legalized it in 2002.
24,927 people died by euthanasia in 2022 in Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands, representing an increase of 113% from 2017, when 11,729 deaths were recorded.
The findings come amid calls in Britain to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults from politicians and celebrities such as Dame Esther Rantzen, who revealed she has joined Dignitas.
Assisted dying includes providing patients with means of suicide, usually lethal drugs, while euthanasia is performed by a doctor, usually by lethal injection.
In Canada, which legalized euthanasia in 2016, the number of cases has risen sharply. Last year, the rate was 30 per cent, and the rate has more than quadrupled since 2017.
In 2022, doctors killed an estimated 13,241 people, equivalent to 4.1 per cent of all deaths in Canada in 2020. this year.
< p>In 2021, the law was expanded to include serious and chronic physical illnesses, even if they are not life-threatening, although it was originally only offered to the terminally ill.
Chef Tracy Thompson, 55, applied to be euthanized. after being unemployed and bedridden due to Covid last December.
The Netherlands is the first country to legalize euthanasia
The Netherlands was the first country to legalize euthanasia in 2002. Euthanasia is legal only under certain conditions, including when there is an incurable disease that causes “unbearable” physical or mental suffering.
Last April, the Dutch government announced it would expand right-to-die laws to include terminally ill children aged one to 12.
But in 2022, the number has increased by almost 14 %, equivalent to up to one in 20 deaths in the Netherlands.
Of the 8,720 people killed together, twenty-nine couples were killed, usually by lethal injection.
115 people with severe mental illness was assisted to die. In recent years, five people with autism under 30 have been euthanized.
Belgian law stipulates that a patient must experience unbearable suffering as a result of an incurable illness and make repeated and considered requests for euthanasia before it is granted.
2.5 percent of deaths in Belgium last year were attributed to euthanasia, with nearly 3,000 people undergoing the lethal procedure, up nearly 10 percent from 2021 and 28 percent from 2017.
Among them was a 23-year-old survivor of the 2016 Brussels attacks who was euthanized after years of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Shanti De Corte was 17 when Islamic State terrorists detonated the bombs at Zaventem airport. .
Although she managed to escape physically unharmed, she suffered from anxiety and panic attacks and attempted suicide twice.
It has been legal in Colombia and Luxembourg for over fifty years.
There were also similar cases in Colombia and Luxembourg. has had legal euthanasia for over half a century. Across the two countries, 133 people died, up 12 percent from 2021.
Euthanasia is also legal in Spain, where 180 people died in the first year the law came into force in 2022. Portugal has legalized euthanasia, which is now legal in some Australian states, but the law has not yet come into force.
Euthanasia is not legal in the United States, but assisted dying, where patients are provided with the means, usually lethal drugs, to end their own lives is available in five states.
Assisted dying is also legal in Switzerland, where the Dignitas clinic is located , which now has a record number of participants from the UK, and in New Zealand following the 2020 referendum.
In Oregon, California and Washington, assisted suicides rose by at least 57 percent. In California, their number more than doubled: from 423 in 2018 to 853 in 2022.
“When it comes to euthanasia, the slippery slope is not hypothetical,” said Robert Clark, who was lead counsel in the landmark Mortier v. Belgian euthanasia laws case at the European Court of Human Rights, which ended in a ruling that they violated the right to life.
“We see two things happening in every jurisdiction that has gone down this path. The numbers are growing almost every year. And there is a need to widen the qualifying conditions,” said the director of human rights organization ADF International.
“A warning to those advocating changes to the law in the UK”
Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said that The “sharp increase in the number of people undergoing euthanasia” should serve as a “warning to those advocating changes to the law in the UK.”
The Dignity in Dying campaign for assisted dying in the UK, which will only be open to terminally ill adults who have the mental capacity to make a choice and have access to high quality end-of-life care.
CEO Sarah Wooten said that number is expected to increase as more people learn about assisted dying and more doctors are trained.
“Even so, the percentage of all deaths that are assisted in these countries remains low; less than 1 per cent in many parts of the US and Australia,” she said.
Ms Wootton said: “We cannot lose sight of the devastating reality of the UK's outdated laws.”
< p>” Every year thousands of people suffer, die despite end-of-life care, and hundreds of terminally ill people take their own lives, often alone, using violent means.”
She added: “The next government must allow free voting and finding time for assisted dying. Assisted dying is a movement whose time has come.”
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