Swiss study: Legalizing assisted suicide does not lessen the number of tragic "common" suicide deaths.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A study published on August 9 by the journal Cancer Medicine investigates the claim of the assisted suicide lobby that legalizing assisted suicide (AS) lessens other violent "common suicide" (CS) deaths. The study concludes that:

The assumption that, with the increasingly accessible option of AS for patients with cancer, CS suicide will become “superfluous” cannot be confirmed. There are strong reasons indicating that situations and circumstances of cancer-associated CS are different from those for cancer-associated AS.

The study examined data from 1999 - 2018 indicated that the number of (AS) deaths among people with cancer approximately doubled every five years while percentage of deaths by cancer remained almost unchanged. The number of (CS) deaths represent a small fraction of cancer deaths, nonetheless (CS) deaths among cancer patients remained almost unchanged.

There were 8738 reported assisted suicide during the period of the study. There were (1999 - 2003) 582 assisted suicides (0.2% of deaths), (2004 - 2008) 1161 assisted suicides (0.4%), (2009 - 2013) 2175 assisted suicides (0.7%), (2014 - 2018) 4820 assisted suicides (1.5%).

The summary of the study stated:

The law in Switzerland permits non-selfish assisted suicide. The analysis covering 1999–2018 shows cancer as the prominent disease linked with AS (3,580 cases, 41.0% of AS). However, cancer accounted for a small fraction of patients (832 people, 3.8% of CS).

The study reveals a doubling of AS cases in cancer patients every five years. By 2014–2018, cancer-associated AS rose to 2.3% of all cancer-related deaths. In contrast, cancer-related CS decreased from 1999 to 2003 and remained steady from 2009 to 2018.

The study indicated that people with cancer who died by (AS) are different than the group of people with cancer who died by (CS). The study stated:

However, differences between the suicide types exist not only in terms of underlying situations and associated diseases. The two forms also differ significantly by age and gender distributions. While AS in Switzerland tends to be chosen more often by women (57% of cases in the observation period 1999–2018), CS is committed primarily by men with significantly higher incidences, nearly 75% of all cases, than women (in this context, however, the gender paradox of suicidal behavior must also be noted: females have been found to have a disproportionately higher rate of suicide attempts than men). While AS is a predominantly geriatric phenomenon (the median age in the above-mentioned 20-year period was 78 years; if cancer-associated AS cases are excluded, it was as high as 81 years), CS, on the other hand, is committed by significantly younger people (median age: 52 years).

The average age of cancer patients who die by (AS) is 78 and primarily female and the average age of cancer patients who die by (CS) is 52 and is primarily male.

Previous studies indicate that legalizing (AS) does not lead to a decrease in (CS). The Swiss study compares (AS) and (CS) in relation to people with cancer and concludes that people with cancer who died by AS or CS were comparatively different groups. 

There is no proof that legalizing assisted suicide results in fewer common suicide deaths.

More articles on the relationship between suicide and assisted suicide

• Be careful what you wish for when you legalize assisted suicide (Link).

• Suicide rates in jurisdictions that have legalized assisted death are not decreasing (Link).