By Leslie Wolfgang
Though assisted suicide is sold to the policymakers of Australia and America as a perverse method to reduce suicide generally, the societal outcome of permitting some people to legally commit suicide has caused many other people to attempt and succeed in their own suicides. It is as though suicide is a social contagion — which it is.
This is in addition to a steady increase in demand for legal assisted suicide year over year since VAD was adopted in Australia. According to the annual report of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board’s latest publication for July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, the number of deaths via assisted suicide in Victoria increased by 11% to 306, and the number of applications for assisted suicide increased by six percent over the previous year.
This data, coupled with the revelation that suicide among the elderly in Victoria has increased by 50% should give pause to any policymakers wondering if assisted suicide is good public policy.
In the Australian state of Queensland, assisted suicide is happening at a shocking rate as revealed by latest reports. Australians there are dying from assisted suicide and euthanasia at rates even higher than Victoria or Western Australia. In a shocking international news story, the Australian Capital Territory Human Rights Commission in a report to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Committee criticized current Australian law for not permitting minors to utilize their “assisted dying” legal regime.
Many critics of assisted suicide claim that assisted suicide advocates are never satisfied with any restrictions or conditions on access and will continually fight for the expansion of criteria for accessing assisted suicide. Continued efforts for expansion in Australia, Canada, and America may prove them correct.
Leslie Wolfgang is a Board Member of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition -USA.
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