Analyzing euthanasia in the Netherlands, a study
published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry
found that in more than half of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) cases,
patients declined treatment that could have helped them.
This flies in the face of euthanasia activists’
claims that physician-assisted suicide for the mentally ill is committed only
on people with untreatable mental illnesses.
In many cases in the study, patients cited “loneliness”
as their primary reason for requesting to be killed.
Besides the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland
have legalized killing the mentally ill, and Canada will implement assisted
suicide in the coming months. Proponents
say they are defending the rights of the mentally ill; but opponents say laws
allowing patients to be killed by their doctors are intrinsically flawed. They say that “doctor-assisted death” is an
oxymoron.
Depression is one example euthanasia opponents
use to illustrate how physician-assisted suicide can be abused under the guise
of mental illness. Other mental
illnesses qualifying for suicide assistance include avoidant personality,
dependent personality, eating disorders, and autism.
Investigating records of most physician-assisted
suicide cases for psychiatric distress from 2011 to mid-2014, 57% of patients
refused treatment that would have eased their depression or other mental
illness. Many patients simply said they
feel intensely lonely.
70% of physician-assisted suicide cases in the
Netherlands study were women.
5-states in the U.S. have legalized euthanasia;
but none (as of yet) have expanded the practice to the mentally ill. However, researchers from Harvard University
cautioned, “In the United States, the trend of legalizing physician-assisted
death is already accompanied by discussions about broadening the practice
beyond individuals with terminal illness.”
According to the JAMA Psychiatry study, patients
who got assistance to die in the Netherlands sought suicide help from doctors
they had never seen before; who never treated them; and in many cases used “mobile
end-of-life clinics.”
Also found was the fact that in one fourth of
euthanasia cases for the mentally ill, attending physicians disagreed on the
merits of the request to die.
“This finding is consistent with a host of
previous studies, as well as analyses of Oregon reports in former years, that
doctors who give the poison prescription fail to refer patients for supposedly
mandatory counseling,” said bioethicist and public policy scholar Dr.
Jacqueline Harvey to LifeSiteNews.
Dr. Harvey, who teaches political science at
Texas A&M’s Tarleton State University and serves as U.S. policy analyst for
the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International, explained to LifeSiteNews, “My review of reports has
shown that patients are not screened for depression according to the law,
meaning that many who would otherwise not wish to take their lives if treated
for depression are not adequately protected.”
This Associate Scholar at Washington, D.C.’s Charlotte Lozier Institute
reviewed the documented effects of legalizing physician-assisted suicide in
states that have passed such legislation. Her review noted, “Many patients opting to end
their lives suffer from treatable depression and physicians report that
patients for whom interventions were made (like treating depression) were more
likely to change their minds about wanting to end their lives.” Harvey went on to say, “One analyst, after
examining Oregon’s most recent annual report, found that physicians who
prescribe the lethal medications are failing to refer for necessary psychiatric
evaluations of patients, many of whom might reconsider suicide if properly
treated.” Dr. Harvey concluded, “This
prompts the question of how many people freely choose PAS or are pressured into
the decision by negative circumstances, especially circumstances for which
there is some or complete relief.”
Rev. Dr.
Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret),
U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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