[ExI] Legal euthanasia for mental problems increasing worldwide

[efc at swisscows.email]

I'm all for it on an individual basis, however, having people recommend it 
could lead to some thorny ethical issues.

On Thu, 18 Apr 2024, BillK via extropy-chat wrote:

> 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.
> --------------
>
> Extending euthanasia to get rid of problems or difficult cases sounds
> very dubious to me.
>
> BillK
>
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