A new study has found that around 16 per cent of people who end their lives at Swiss clinics such as Dignitas have no underlying illness, with “weariness of life” being cited increasingly as a reason for choosing an assisted suicide.
Lonely people, the rich, the educated and the divorced are the groups most inclined to seeking an assisted suicide, according to the new Swiss study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Meanwhile a summary of the encroaching danger of legislation allowing assisted suicide has been published by the Senior Policy Analyst with the Disability Rights Education Fund in the United States, Marilyn Golden. She argues that people with depression are made more vulnerable by such legislation.
The Swiss researchers found that 740 of the 1,300 who opted for assisted suicide, were women. Twenty people who died in the clinics listed a mental illness as the reason for ending their lives, even though it is legal only for persons judged competent to make the decision.
People with no religious affiliation were about six times as likely to opt for assisted suicide as Roman Catholics and twice as likely as Protestants. Those with the highest levels of education were roughly twice as likely to choose it as the least educated, and the richest twice as likely as the poorest.
Those living alone and the divorced were each about 50 per cent more likely to choose assisted suicide.
Professor Matthias Egger of the University of Bern, who led the study, said: “Social isolation and loneliness are well known risk factors for non-assisted suicides. Also, the observation that women die more frequently by assisted suicide than men is potentially of concern. Interestingly, though, studies from the Netherlands and Oregon in the US reported more men than women among assisted deaths.”
The European Court of Human Rights has called for Switzerland to clarify when people without a terminal illness are allowed to end their lives. Professor Egger said future deaths in such clinics must be registered so that trends in suicides could be monitored.
US Senior Policy Analyst, Marilyn Golden, has published an eight-point summary of the danger of legalising assisted suicide:
1. Assisted suicide is a deadly mix with our profit-driven healthcare system. At $300, assisted suicide will be the cheapest treatment. Assisted suicide saves insurance companies (and governments) money.
2. Abuse of people with disabilities, and elder abuse, are rising. Not every family is a supportive family! Where assisted suicide is legal, such as in Oregon, an heir or abusive caregiver may steer someone towards assisted suicide, witness the request, pick up the lethal dose, and even give the drug—no witnesses are required at the death, so who would know?
3. Diagnoses of terminal illness are too often wrong, leading people to give up on treatment and lose good years of their lives, where assisted suicide is legal.
4. Where assisted suicide is legal, no psychological evaluation is required or even recommended. People with a history of depression and suicide attempts have received the lethal drugs.
5. Financial and emotional pressures can also make people choose death for fear of being a burden upon others. Legislating increases these pressures.
6. Legalising assisted suicide is unnecessary. Everyone already has the legal right to refuse
treatment and get full palliative care, including, if dying in pain, pain-relieving palliative sedation.
7. There are no true safeguards against abuse. Where assisted suicide is legal, the safeguards are hollow, with no enforcement or investigation authority.
8. Prejudice against disabled people is already widespread and their quality of life underrated. Will doctors and nurses fully explore their concerns and fight for our full lives? Will they get suicide prevention or suicide assistance?
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