The number of suicides in the United States is expected to increase, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not include assisted deaths in the data.
While the current number of suicides sits at 48,183, the total is expected to increase to 49,449 due to assisted suicide numbers.
The CDC does not include assisted suicide deaths in the national suicide data because many “laws require doctors to lie about the actual cause as the underlying disease on death certificates rather than the reality of an ingested overdose of barbiturates,” the National Pulse reported.
In 2021, almost 1,400 people died from assisted suicide.
The number places 2021 U.S. suicides close to 50,000.
Reporting from The National Pulse:
The CDC’s statistics do not mention assisted suicide. That’s a mistake. Normalizing suicide as an answer to suffering caused by illness, studies have shown, normalizes and increases suicides more generally. The CDC should add “aid in dying” to its suicide statistics and include that category of people who should receive prevention services. Doing otherwise will only make our suicide tragedy even worse going forward.
