Violent suicides soar in countries where doctor-assisted dying is legalised, reveals study

Legal euthanasia and assisted suicide have no impact on the reduction of violent suicides and might in fact increase their prevalence, a new study has shown.

The 35-page analysis in The Journal of Ethics in Mental Health showed that there has been no reduction in violent, or non-assisted suicides, in any European country where physician-assisted deaths have been permitted.

On the contrary there have been noticeable increases in violent suicides in those places where patients have access to euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS).

The study debunks claims by “assisted dying” campaigners that prohibitions against assisting in suicides is driving people to take their lives by their own hands, often horribly.

The report, called “Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and Suicide Rates in Europe”, found that the introduction of euthanasia and assisted suicide often “is followed by considerable increases in suicide (inclusive of assisted suicide) and in intentional self-initiated death”.

“There is no reduction in non-assisted suicide  relative  to  the  most  similar  non-EAS  [euthanasia and assisted suicide] neighbour  and,  in  some  cases,  there  is  a  relative  and/or  an absolute  increase  in  non-assisted  suicide.”

The study says: “Furthermore, the data from Europe and from the U.S. indicate that it is women who have most been placed at risk of avoidable premature death.”

The peer-reviewed study was carried out by Prof David Jones, the director of the Anscombe Centre for Bioethics, an Oxford-based institute serving the Catholic Church in the UK and the Irish Republic.

Professor Jones said that his study represented “further evidence that legalising assisted suicide or euthanasia will result in more people ending their lives prematurely”.

“It will not save lives. It will not help prevent suicide,” he said.

“Legalising what is euphemistically called ‘assisted dying’ will endanger the lives of older people living with serious illness,” he added.

“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 not a burden to the community. They are full members of our society and the human family. We are all enriched by their presence”.

Professor Jones has previously demonstrated, in a paper co-published with Prof David Paton of Nottingham University in 2015, that data from the U.S. has shown no reduction in non-assisted suicide in those States which permit the practice.

The authors found instead that the introduction of assisted suicide was associated with a significant increase in all types of suicides, with some evidence of increases in non-assisted suicides.

In Europe, a growing number of countries now permit assisted dying in either the form of euthanasia – the direct killing of a patient by a doctor, which is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain – or by assisted suicide, which is legal in such countries as Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Other countries are under pressure to change the law and assisted dying activists have mounted an aggressive campaign to legalise assisted dying in all parts of the UK and Ireland, often claiming that assisted suicide would result in fewer violent suicides.

At present, the Assisted Dying Bill is making its way through the Houses of Parliament while an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill is also demanding that assisted dying legislation be introduced within a year of the Bill becoming law.

An assisted suicide Bill is imminent in the Scottish Parliament while politicians in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands and a British dependency, have signalled their intention to legalize both euthanasia and assisted suicide in the near future.

The Irish Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice has recommended that a special committee examines euthanasia and assisted suicide following the failure of an assisted suicide Bill which was introduced in 2020.

(Photo: Shutterstock/CNA)

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