A worldwide campaign for euthanasia is underway. For decades, government bodies across the globe have been legislating methods for citizens to undertake “assisted suicide,” which is suicide that is “committed by someone with assistance from another person.” These laws maintain that euthanasia advances a free society, protects individual autonomy, and even preserves a person’s “right to a dignified death.”
After conducting an analysis, American Faith has discovered legislation allowing citizens to commit assisted suicide in the following ten countries:
Australia
Australia’s euthanasia policies were passed in 2022, legalizing the country’s ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ (VAD) system. Peter Singe, a bioethics professor at Princeton University, described the legislation as means of preventing “distressing” and “undignified” deaths.
Belgium
Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002 as part of the ‘Belgian Act on Euthanasia.’ While the original law provided the service for adults, a 2014 amendment extended the law to children. In 2016, the first euthanasia was performed on a terminally-ill 17-year-old.
Euthanasia commission head Wim Distelmans admitted that while it is fortunate that so few children are even considered for euthanasia at all, those who are allowed to use the service, even the young, should not be refused the “right to a dignified death.”
Canada
Canada’s ‘Medical Assistance in Dying’ (MAID) euthanasia policy was legalized in 2016 for the terminally ill. It was later revised in 2021 to provide medically-administered death to those with a “serious and incurable illness, disease or disability.” As of March 17, 2023, the MAID policy will allow those with psychiatric disorders.
Although those eligible for assisted death must be 18 years old or older, another revision to MAID proposes including 16-year-olds.
Patients and doctors alike approve of the Canadian policy. One anonymous woman with anorexia said that acquiring an assisted death would make her feel more “dignified,” while Dr. Stephanie Green, a Vancouver-based physician and MAID advocate, claimed that assisting in death is “privileged” and “meaningful” work.
In 2021, 10,064 Canadians lost their lives to MAID provisions, an increase of 32.4% compared to the prior year. 2.2% of 2021 deaths were non-foreseeable natural deaths (RFND).
When Paralympic army veteran Christine Gauthier requested to have a wheelchair lift installed in her home, Gauthier was instead offered equipment to medically assist in death.
Speaking before a House of Commons veterans committee, Gauthier cited a letter from a government official saying that if she was “so desperate” the government “can offer you MAID, medical assistance in dying.” Other veterans reported receiving similar offers.
Most recently, the Canadian government funded an assisted suicide activity book for children, describing the various processes by which an individual may be euthanized. The U.S. conservative news outlet National Review argued the book indoctrinates children to accept the normalization of euthanasia.
Colombia
Although euthanasia has been legal since 1997, medically-assisted suicide was recently legalized in the country’s supreme court in May 2022. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit where Colombian right-to-die group ‘DescLAB’ argued that making assisted suicide illegal violates a patient’s right to a dignified death.
“If you want to die you should get the help to die without pain, in a safe way, with company, and without the stigma of suicide,” the lawsuit reads.
Following the ruling, DescLAB research director Lucas Correa said assisted suicide is a “new mechanism which, along with euthanasia, allows us to access a free, safe and accompanied medically assisted death.” Correa added that Colombia’s policies on euthanasia make the country one of the “most advanced” in dying with “dignity.”
Luxembourg
Luxembourg passed the “Right to Die With Dignity” law in 2008. The law allows a patient to end their life when pain becomes “unbearable” for those with an incurable medical condition.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands approved euthanasia for those 12 and older in 2002.
In 2021, 7,666 people utilized the assisted suicide provisions, up 10% from 2020. Although the law states that those seeking assisted suicide must do so with “full conviction,” a 2020 revision allowed doctors to euthanize patients with severe, advanced dementia.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told media outlets that a medical investigation revealed minors with a terminal illness were suffering so “unbearably” that there is a “need” for “active termination of life.”
New Zealand
Euthanasia became legalized in New Zealand in 2020 after 65% of citizens voted in favor of the policy. ACT New Zealand, a political party led by David Seymour, claimed the bill’s passing allows New Zealand to become a “kinder, more compassionate, more humane” country.
Spain
In 2021, Spain passed a law legalizing euthanasia, its parliament saying the move makes the country “humane, fairer and freer.”
Danel Aser Lorente, a Spanish film lecturer, said the bill’s passing enabled him to feel “a bit more free.”
According to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, euthanasia’s passage was “widely demanded by society.”
“Thanks to all the people who have tirelessly fought for the right to die with dignity to be recognized in Spain,” Sánchez tweeted.
Switzerland
Switzerland was the first country to legalize euthanasia in 1942, noting that assisted suicide would be administered as long as the “motives are not selfish.”
The country’s leniency in its euthanasia policy made way for “suicide tourism,” allowing international travelers to choose to end their lives. Between 2008 to 2012, 611 travelers opted for assisted suicide, 44% of them from Germany.
United States
Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Montana, and California all have various physician-assisted suicide provisions.
A U.S.-based medical-aid-in-dying group, ‘Compassion and Choices,’ provides “peaceful death” options to those with dementia and terminal illness.
