[ExI] Legal euthanasia for mental problems increasing worldwide

[BillK]

Most cases of assisted suicide or euthanasia (ASE) in the Netherlands
– the first country to legalise the practice in 2002 – involve people
with terminal illnesses. But ASE for psychiatric reasons is on the
rise. In 2010, only two people sought euthanasia on the grounds of
mental health. That increased to 68 in 2019 and to 138 last year.

<https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/04/18/why-are-dutch-doctors-euthanising-a-healthy-young-woman/>

Quotes:
Psychiatric euthanasia remains divisive in the Netherlands. Many Dutch
people who were initially in favour of ASE are reconsidering their
positions because of it. Boudewijn Chabot is one such critic, a
psychiatrist who actually received a suspended sentence for carrying
out the first reported case of euthanasia for psychiatric reasons in
the 1990s. Now Chabot worries that the legalisation of ASE has gone
too far. ‘I am not against euthanasia in psychiatry or severe
dementia’, he writes. ‘[But] I am extremely concerned that doctors are
trying to solve social misery due to lack of treatment and care, by
opening the gate to the end.’
In Canada, people seek out euthanasia to solve poverty, homelessness
and lack of medical care. In the Netherlands, therapists seem to have
given up on treating the mentally unwell, recommending euthanasia
instead.
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Extending euthanasia to get rid of problems or difficult cases sounds
very dubious to me.

BillK